Hiding Something

It's a few decades ago. Outside the gates of the Aga Khan Palace, the shrubbery moves a little. Stealthily, a little boy peeps out from behind a bush. He has just been hiding something in it, something he does not want anyone to find.

This little boy is Kanha Ramdas Gandhi, the eldest grandson of Gandhi. He has been spending some of his vacations with his grandfather and his dear grandmother Kasturba and is now with them during their jail tenure at the Aga Khan Palace.

Ba is so attached to him that if he is not near her she misses him dearly. Kanha feels, too, that he has a special right over her, more than even Bapu himself.

Ba has given Kanha a pen which he treasures more than anything else. It is also precious because she has promised to teach him how to write with it. But, as happens all the time, Kanha's sister Sumi has taken a liking to this very pen.

Sumi had asked Kanha to give her the pen. Naturally Kanha refused. At which Sumi went and complained to her grandfather, who simply took the pen away and kept it with himself.

Wasn't Bapu misusing his power over Kanha to take away the pen? Yes, feels Kanha. That is why he has stolen the pen from Bapu's room. He knows that his bags will be searched thoroughly when the pen is missed. And that is why he is here, in the shrubbery outside the Aga Khan Palace, hiding his precious pen.

Nirmal Chandra