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Tia's World

By Team Kalamwali in Stories » Fiction
Updated 18:29 IST Sep 03, 2017

Views » 1016 | 13 min read

 

This story is a work of fiction by a 9 year old who attended Kalamwali's Creative Writing Workshop in the summer of 2017. 

TIA’S WORLD

 

Chapter 1

“Tia, are you ready?” shouted her mother. “Yeah, Mom I am almost done” shouted Tia, the worm. “Come on fast, we have to go and look for a house…remember??” shouted her mother again. Tia rushed downstairs and quickly wore her shoes. She and her mother came out of their house. “Tia, listen you go on the right and search for houses while I go on the left. If you find anything, just call for me” said her mother. “Ok,” said Tia, “Bye bye…”

Tia turned to the right to search for a new house as her home had almost broken due to the earthquake a few days ago.Every day Tia and her parents went hunting for a house while her grandparents and her little brother and sister would stay at home.

Today Tia’s father was busy. So she and her mother had to go out and look for the house alone. Being a worm Tia knew that she had to be very careful; not to get stamped upon. Tia slowly went into the grass when she suddenly heard a little voice. It was of a girl called Marie talking to her brother, Jim. They both were walking on a footpath near the grass. Tia slowly crossed the road and went to the footpath to follow the boy and the girl. “Maybe these two kids are going to their house. Their house may have a garden where I can live with my family,” Tia thought to herself. After about ten minutes, the girl and boy stopped and turned into a little lane. Then they went into a big house which had a huge garden.

“Yes!” thought Tia excitedly; “now this is my new home.” She quickly crawled into the garden and saw many insects. There were ants, ladybugs, grasshoppers, baby butterflies and worms too. Tia ran over to a worm that looked her age. “Hi!” she said “Can you just tell me if it’s ok if I can stay here?” “Hello!” said the other worm, “I am Mia, and yes, of course you may stay here.” Then Mia suddenly looked around. “Hey, have you come alone here?” she asked Tia. “Yes” said Tia. She suddenly saw a confused look coming on Mia’s face. “Oh don’t worry; I just came to ask if we can stay here…I am going to come back with my parents, my brother, sister and my grandparents,” Tia assured her. “Ok, you can come here anytime and I will even help you find a good house”, Mia said smilingly. “Thanks!” Tia said and ran out of the house.

Suddenly, she heard some noise…Vrrrroommmm, Vrrooommmm….Tia looked behind and there was a huge monster coming from behind with a big human being sitting on it. What Tia thought was a monster was actually a bike. Tia jumped back into the grass and the bike went off. Tia had never seen this monster (in her language) before. Tia rushed back home and just as she was going to ring the bell; she remembered she had to call her mother. “Mom” she shouted, “It’s me, Tia…come home…I have found a big house where we can stay.” Tia’s mother came running from across the street to see who it was. “Tia, there you are!” she said hugging her. “Come on; let’s go inside our house and talk,” her mother said. Tia ran inside and saw her father waiting for her. She sat down and told everyone what she had found. She even told them about the big monster she had seen. “Ok,” her father said at last; “so now if we shift there we have to be careful of that big monster in that house.” He turned around to everyone and said, “We have to pack our bags and leave tomorrow. Say bye to all your friends!”

Suddenly, Tia got tears in her eyes, “Oh no, I never thought of this. Our new home is so far away,” Tia said to herself. “Will we go to the same school that we are going now?” Tia’s sister, Polly asked. “I don’t know Polly,” her father said; “may be yes or may be no.” So everyone packed their bags while Tia went to say bye to friends…

 

Chapter 2

“What? You are going away leaving us” screamed her friends. “Yes,” Tia said sadly; “but we might meet in school,” she said. “Yea,” her best friend said. “Tia..” someone called, “Tia, come home …we are leaving,” it was Tia’s grandmother. “Coming granny,” Tia replied. She got up from her chair and said sadly, “Bye friends, see you in school tomorrow!”

She ran down to meet her granny. She was holding two teeny tiny suitcases in her hand. She gave them to Tia. ’’Here, hold it. Everyone is waiting for you.’’ she said. Tia and her granny started walking back to their house. They reached and Tia saw that her whole family looked as sad as she was. They started walking to the new house, Tia leading them. After some time they reached the new house. “Mia!” Tia shouted. “Tia,” her brother said; “are there any children here?” Tia smiled at him and replied “Yes, there are a lot. You will make many friends here. Don’t worry about friends.” Everyone walked to the garden and Mia came running to them. “Hello, hello, hello!!” Mia said. She looked really excited to see Tia again. “Come, come, come, please come. I will introduce you to everyone and show you your new house,” Mia almost shouted in everyone’s ears. Everyone followed Mia while she showed them all the lanes, colonies and the buildings in the garden. Mia showed them the house and whispered to Tia, “Guess what?? We both are neighbours. My house is next door, you can join my school and we can be in the same class…Now, are you happy?”. “Yes,” Tia said smiling.

Tia soon got used to the house and made a few friends there thanks to Mia. One day, Mia said to Tia “Look, last night I could not sleep. So when I got up to play in the garden with my toys, I saw a few big caterpillars. They came to all the leaves near our house and ate up everything, so today you and me can go a little far from our house to collect some grass to eat”. “Ok,” said Tia. She followed Mia to a little colony nearby. “Come here; see there is a little grass here. Let’s take it to our home. I am sure it will be enough for our families,” Mia said. Mia climbed up a little blade of grass. Suddenly, she screamed and ran down. “Oh no, the humans are coming here,” she said;”Run!”

Tia and Mia ran for their lives.They finally reached a little near their houses. “Huff puff,” panted Tia.”Now what? What do we do? The humans will soon find our houses,” she said. “I do (huff) not (puff) know,’’ Mia said. Suddenly, Tia saw a tall, green blade of grass behind Mia. She ran over to it and ate a small bite. “Ummmm……..delicious! Mia, please try it,” she said looking at Mia. Mia ate a little while Tia climbed up on a pretty purple flower. She looked around to see whether any humans were around. Now, Tia and Mia did not know that the flower Tia was standing on was actually Marie’s favourite flower. And they also did not know that Marie was standing near the flower, watering her garden. She turned around to water her favourite plant when she saw Tia standing on it. Marie screamed. Tia screamed too. Marie bent down the grass while Tia climbed down with Mia and ran away.

Tia didn’t really have time to explain Mia what had happened so she told Mia that she will tell her once they reach home. They ran to Tia’s house and saw her grandparents sleeping with her parents and her brother and sister playing. “Hi Tia, hi Mia,” they sang out together. And then they both looked at each other and giggled. Tia told Mia to sit down in the room where everyone was but after five minutes they had to shift to Tia’s room. Now, you must be wondering why did they shift? Wasn’t everything peaceful there? If you think so, you are wrong. Tia’s brother and sister kept giggling for three hours. They didn’t stop giggling till Tia and Mia went to Tia’s room to talk.

 

 

Chapter 3

“Whoa!” Mia said after listening to what had happened in the garden with Tia. “Ok, listen. Now, tell me have you ever seen any human beings here before?” Tia asked Mia. “I don’t remember now,” Mia said; “but I must have seen a few.” Suddenly, Tia’s house shook. The windows rattled and the panes fell down. Tia’s family woke up and rushed to the door to find out what had happened. Her brother and sister clung on to each other in fright. “What do you think has happened? Do you think our house is going to break down for the second time in this month?” her sister asked her brother. “I think so,” her brother said. Suddenly, Tia’s grandmother screamed so loudly that everyone came rushing to see what had happened. “Oh God, it was better to stay in that broken old house than to come here. Everyday there are humans coming near our house. And look, one girl seems to be coming near our house,” she said. Everyone stared out of the window. Tia immediately recognised who the girl was. It was Marie with her parents, her brother and her huge dog. “Listen, listen, listen,” shouted her brother, Jim; “You better come out of the house now, else our dog, Ura will come and eat you up all. I am warning you she loves insects”, he grunted. All the insects started coming out in fear. Even Tia’s family with Mia had to come out. “All of you pack your bags and get out of this garden, or then we are warning you again, Ura is with us. And if you dare to come into the garden again, we will squash you,” shouted Marie. All the insects rushed inside to pack their bags. Everyone was feeling sad to leave the house, but they all knew this was the only option. They all came out with their bags and their relatives and slowly left the garden. Tia looked behind and saw that there were hundreds of insects behind her and another hundred ahead of her. They all walked to the footpath where there was a little grass growing. Suddenly, Tia’s grandfather shouted, “Listen everyone, I want all of you to listen carefully. If you listen to me, we will have a very nice life on this footpath too. Now, divide yourself as per you family. I mean, beetles to the right, bugs to the left, snails in front of me and so on.” Everyone followed Tia’s grandfather’s instructions. “Ok, now let’s see which group can do what. All the grasshoppers can jump a little far away and collect some grass and twigs to build a few houses. The ants can go and search for some food. The butterflies can get us some nectar. The children can take care of all the babies. The earthworms can dig the soil to make houses. Now, I want no wastage of time and let’s start working. Everyone gets to work, “he said. And as days turned into weeks, the insects had started living comfortably on the footpath too!!

 

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, Marie was getting ready for school the next day. She was excited about the school picnic that was planned. She was going to a farm with her entire class. And the most exciting thing was that everyone could even buy a pet from the farm. She had decided to buy a kitten. Soon, they were in the bus to the farm. Marie and her friends talked about which pets to buy. After about an hour, they reached the farm. Everyone got down and met the farmer.”Ok, so before we start this trip, I would like to give you some tips about how to keep your soil rich if you want your plants to be healthy. First, you should have a lot of insects and worms in your soil,” he said. Marie raised her hand. “Worms? And insects?” she asked. “I don’t like those; I would much prefer manure and fertilisers,” she added. “But they are manure and fertilisers,” said the farmer; “if you don’t have insects and worms, manures and fertilisers won’t work. Because in the end insects make our manures rich.”

After the picnic, Marie sighed. “Oh no, I should have let all those insects stay in our house. Now my plants will never grow or will never be healthy,” she thought to herself. After a while, she reached home. She got down from her school bus and started walking home. Suddenly she saw all the insects walking around carrying food, twigs and many more things. She saw Tia’s grandfather giving them instructions. She took a small twig which an ant was carrying and slowly tapped on Tia’s grandfather to catch his attention. He quickly turned behind and saw Marie. “Help!” he screamed, “the humans are here. Run! They will spoil our house again. All the insects left what they were carrying and ran away. “Wait! Don’t run away, this time I am not going to do anything to you all,” shouted Marie.

Slowly the insects started peeping out from their hiding places. Tia was the first one to come out of her hiding place. “Why do you want us now? Didn’t you just throw us out of your house a few days ago” she said. Marie explained to them that she really needed them to make her plants grow. Everyone had come out of their hiding places by now. Finally, Mia said to Marie “Ok, we have decided that we will not come back to your house.” Suddenly Marie looked as if she was going to cry. “But wait,” Mia said, “we will call our friends to come to stay with you. If we can enrich your soil, they can do it too.”

 “But won’t it be a long walk to go around the town looking for insects that need a home?” asked Marie. “Not at all difficult,” Tia’s grandfather said, “we will write letters to them.” “Great, then let me write those letters for you,” said Marie. “You can write it if you know Insectibet* and have A-1 size papers with teeny-tiny pens,” a butterfly said. “Which bet??” Marie seemed puzzled. “So that clearly shows that you don’t know anything about our lives,” Tia’s grandfather said, “leave it to us. We will do our work. And you go back to your home and make sure you don’t put those insecticides and pesticides and whatever those things are in your garden.”

“Ok,” Marie said. Soon, all the insects started writing letters to whomever they knew who didn’t have a house. Marie told her parents about what she had learnt from the farmer and told them never to spray pesticides in the garden. One week later, when Marie was getting ready to go to school, she heard a small noise. “Marie, are you there? Will you just come out; there are some people here to meet you.” Marie looked around. Suddenly, she saw someone tapping on her window. It was an ant. At first, Marie screamed. “Shhh!!” that ant shouted, “I am Tia’s friend, the insects have come.” Marie knew that she could not go out of the house till the time she was dressed for school. So she jumped out of the window and followed the ant. Outside the house door, there was a long row of all kinds of insects. They all had teeny-tiny suitcases just like Tia and her family. “How many insects are there?” Marie asked the ant. “Around 200-300” the ant said. Marie stared at her. “Ttttwwoooo hundred or Tttthhhhreee hundred!!!” she exclaimed. “Yes, no excuses! I want everyone to get a house here in your garden, “said the ant. Marie smiled.

Soon, all the insects got a home in Marie‘s garden and everyone stayed happily ever after. And yes, I forget to tell you one thing. If you ever see a group of various kinds of insects carrying stuff to a footpath and doing their chores in an order, you will know they are from Tia‘s neighbourhood.

 

 

 

* Insectibet = Alphabet of the insects.

 - By Saanvi Shrivastava

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Dr H P Shrivastava 04-Sep-2017 11:57

Grand penning skill at such a tender age is really a superb God gift bestowed on Dear Saanvi. No doubt having creative ideas in her thought and presenting well into a full fledged story in a dialect style seems to be an educational hobby for herself. Our great blessings are always there with Saanvi for her bright future and brilliant fiction writing. Dr H P Shrivastava hpshri@gmail.com

shantanu 04-Sep-2017 16:11

This is a very nice story. I am very embarrassed that I could not write even 1 page in last one week. Kudos on writing such a beautiful story.

Deepika Srivastava 15-Sep-2017 09:12

Story writing is an art and that extra ordinary skill Sanna u got at this age. I know u r a great artist n painter too. We are sure that u will make some more story. Stay blessed

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