Hey everyone. Hope you all are safe n good. I am really sorry for the late update.
Naina and Preeti smile and get the speeches out of their pockets. As they start to move, Swati stops them and whispers, “Girls, this is the bad speech. You can’t say these things now.” Naina and Preeti realize that and stare each other in fear.
“Now what?” asks a concerned Preeti. “I am so sorry. I never thought something like this was coming.” apologizes Swati. “It’s not your fault at all.” replies Preeti. Meanwhile, Naina’s eyes are constantly looking for Sameer and find him standing in a corner and signing her to stay calm. “Speak what your heart says.” says Sameer via lip sync. Naina understands what he is trying to tell her and smiles. “We don’t need a speech now. All the words will be from the heart.” says Naina. “All the best.” says Swati and Naina and Preeti reach the stage.
“Goodmorning everyone. We are really sorry as we lost our speeches.” says Naina while Anand and Bela get worried. “But that doesn’t mean we will not speak anything. Today we would like to speak our hearts out.” says Preeti.
We both have been born and brought up in London. This is the first time we have come to India. At first, we found it really strange and uncomfortable to live here but slowly and gradually, we realized that this place is far better than the place we stayed at all our lives. The education we have here is very different from that in London. We have technology in London that makes education easy but we have amazing teachers and family here who make education easier. We believe that the morals and family values we have here cannot be found in the whole world. Being able to study in India is a blessing. Among the true friends (they say while looking at Swati, Sameer, Munna, and Pandit) and the amazing family (they say while looking at Anand and Bela) we have found here, we will be able to study well. At least we are sure that we will be able to get better grades than we did in London. (Everyone starts laughing) When we came here, we just kept on thinking of going back to London. And we never thought we would say this but now, we are just thinking of staying here as some intelligent people have tightened the loose screws in our head. (Sameer laughs) We would like to thank our school that has brought up such awesome students and we hope somebody would say the same about us one day. And our school has managed to be so good because of our teachers, management, and most importantly, the government that funds the schools and promotes education. A big thankyou to everybody for giving the love and support we always wanted. We guess we spoke a lot, so we would like to have our respectable trustees and our honorable guest to please come up and provide the further instructions.
As soon as their speech ends, they hear loud voices of claps and positive comments. They feel so good that tears roll down their eyes. Anand and Bela hug them and feel proud of them.
The Inspection goes successful and the Government official awards the school with 1000 rupees extra than the usual amount. Naina and Preeti suggest to use the money to provide education to the poor students nearby. Anand and Bela happily agree.
AT NAINA’S HOME
Anand and Bela tell the family about the girls’ amazing speech and the successful inspection. Naresh blesses the girls while Beena goes to her room irritated. Everybody notices her rude behavior but ignore it. Arjun and Pralay congratulate them. “Do you both want to join us for ice cream in the evening?” asks Naina to compensate for the rude behavior she and Preeti had towards their cousins earlier. Preeti smiles but Arjun and Pralay stare at the girls with confused expressions. “We will take that as a yes.” says Preeti. “Will you just take them along? What about us?” asks Anand. Naina replies, “Does that mean you all forgave us?” “Forgave for what?” asks Bela. “You always knew everything but still thought so much about us. We wanted to apologize and thank you all but don’t know where to start from?” replies Preeti. “We considered the wonderful speech you both gave as both sorry and thankyou. So let’s start again from the beginning. Ok?” says Anand. Naina and Preeti smile and hug their family.
AT SAMEER’S HOME
Vishakha gives shikanji (Lemon Water) to Sameer as she says, “It is so hot outside. You need to have this every day after you return from the school, ok?”
“Ok mummy, but what if I forget to have it?” asks Sameer. “Try to remember. I wish we had a machine that reminded us of the important things.” replies Vishakha. “Come on mummy, don’t dream in the day. There is no such machine. Anyways, we should learn to remember the things ourselves. Our brain should also have something to work on.” says Sameer. Vishakha takes hold of Sameer’s ear lightly and says, “Ok my smart boy. Now finish the shikanji.” and goes back to the kitchen. Sameer takes a sip of the shikanji. “Mummy, please bring some snow to add in the shikanji. It is not cold at all.” says Sameer. Vishakha comes with a bowl of ice and replies, “It is ice, my stupid boy, not snow.” Sameer thinks of Naina when she told him that there’s snow on the mountains and not ice. “From now on, its snow. Ice is not a word in my dictionary at all.” says Sameer as he smiles. Vishakha thinks, “The hot weather has made him crazy. I need to take care of him.”
IN THE EVENING
Anand takes the family to the stall that sells the tastiest ice creams.
They spend a great family time and return happily.
AT NIGHT
“Chachaji-chachiji, can we sleep with you both tonight?” ask Naina and Preeti. “But we all won’t be able to fit on the bed.” replies Anand. “Please Please Please…” request the girls making cute little faces. “Ok fine. But we will not sleep here.” replies Bela. “Then where will we sleep?” ask the girls curiously. “On the terrace. We’ll sleep on charpai.” says Bela and Anand smiles.
“CHARPAI!!!” exclaim Naina and Preeti with strange expressions on their face.