I had a friend in childhood. She stayed down the stairs and we studied in the same school. One summer, on the very last day of our two month break she told the rest of the group that she visited Kashmir during these holidays. I was surprised and amused at this because all the 60 or so days I had met with her every day and played all sorts of sports and games. I was speculating if she went to Kashmir one night and came back by morning. I deduce her problem was that she wanted to go to Kashmir and her parents never took her. So, she persuaded herself this way.

I asked her what she saw there and she did have her answer ready, “Polar bear.” I guess she thought every snowy place had polar bears.

Then another afternoon, we had got our results and were returning back from school together. She was in a different section, but, same grade. I knew she is not very strong with her studies, yet, I asked about her marks. She said this time she had studied hard and she topped the class.

Next day I got to know she was second last.

She was excellent at singing. She had participated in an inter-school singing contest. After the competition and the kids who had gone for it came back, I and another friend asked her the result. She said, she stood second and got a silver color trophy. I congratulated her. Later it was announced during the prayer time that she had won the first prize and got a gold color trophy. This time I could really not figure out what went wrong.

I guess she thought if she’ll tell us about the gold color trophy, we’ll snatch it from her.

Once she flunked a class and did not tell anyone. I anyways found out. I was endorsed to the next class and one day I had to go to the lower-grade as a monitor in a free period. It was her class. She saw me from far and could comprehend that I am coming in, so she left the class and did not return for that entire period. I asked her classmates about her name and they validated.

She thought happily that she had fooled me. I never tried to make her think otherwise also.

One fine day, in the evening when we met to play, she was disturbed over her mother not buying her a new school bag. She told us that she is an adopted kid and that is why her parents don’t behave well with her. On returning back home, I told my mother about this. My mother decided to call her mom next day. When she did so her mother said that my friend had told them that rest of us have teased her that her parents have adopted her and that is why they are not buying bag for her.

Seeing her upset they had rushed to buy a bag for her in the evening.

Smart girl!!!