Rahul was sitting by the edge of a pond and pulling out bits of grass as he sat and stared into space. He was verrry bored. School was closed for the holidays and most of his friends were away. Since his family had guests staying with them they had to stay at home. The guests were friends of his parents. Rahul liked them but they were GROWN UPS ! He spent a little time with them everyday but then slipped out when they started talking grown up stuff. Usually no one noticed! Sometimes he rode his cycle around the garden or went and stared at the dog next door ,but today the dog was just lying around with his tongue hanging out because it was a really hot day. So he went and sat at the edge of the pond near his house.
It was cool there, sometimes he saw a frog snap out it's tongue and catch a fly. which was really disgusting but interesting as well. He loved to see the disgusted look on his sister's face when he described it to her! His sister turned up her nose at soooooooooo many things it was easy for Rahul to irritate her! He did that a lot now since he had so much time and not much to do. But she was spending the day at her friend's house so Rahul walked around till he reached the pond.
There were stones lying around and he absent mindedly started throwing them into the pond...one at a time. They fell in with a nice 'Plunk' and then there were ripples around the place where they fell in. He threw in one, two, three,four, five and picked up the sixth one. It felt cool in his hand and smooth. Curiously he looked at it. It was round and shiny. Also really white.
As he was looking at it he heard his mother calling him so he put the stone in his pocket and went home.
The next day was a rainy day. And not a drizzly kind of rain either. It poured down and soaked everything outside. Soon the house was surrounded with water that was a few inches deep and still it kept on raining! It was so dark they had to switch on the lights. It was the kind of day when there was nothing to do but get on your elder sister's nerves! So Rahul followed his sister around and asked her questions till she screamed and started throwing things at him. His mother was really embarassed since the guests could hear so she called him and said 'Rahul,why don't you go to your room and do some holiday homework?' Rahul tried explaining to her that he had just been asking his sister questions but she did'nt seem interested and went on and on about homework so he went to his room.
He went to his desk and started shifting his books around and then he saw the stone he had picked up at the pond. It looked really round and smooth! He noticed the box of paints that his parent's friends had given him lying on the desk and he opened it. They were really bright acrylic colours. There was also a brush. Rahul looked at the colourful paints and then at the smooth white shiny stone. It seemed to him that the pale stone would look better with some colour on it! He mixed the paint with water and dipped his brush in it. Then almost absentmindedly started painting the stone. He put on some red paint, some blue, some black and pink....finally he stopped and looked at it. He was a little surprised! He seemed to have painted a face on the stone without meaning to! It had bright red hair, black eyes, a round nose and a mouth.
Rahul kept staring at the face on the stone. He turned it this way and that, he threw it up in the air and caught it again and then looked at it again.

Then he almost threw it away because the face suddenly frowned! He set it down on the table and took a couple of steps back!
"How would you like it " the face on the Stone said " if someone threw you up and down?" Then it went on frowning. "I'm sorry" stammered Rahul. Stones were not suposed to do that, they were supposed to maintain a 'stony silence', he thought; and giggled a bit in a scared sort of way.
"I didn't know you were alive." He felt quite silly talking to a stone but didn't know what else to do.
"Why?" The Stone asked.
"Well, because you were just lying there I suppose, like a stone"
"I am a stone. That's what I do. That's what all stones do. It is the essence of being a stone. Do you think just because we don't keep moving around like you people we don't have a place in this world and you can just pick us up and throw us around ?!!"
Rahul blinked! He thought he must be dreaming! He could hear his sister complaining about him to a friend on the phone, and that gave him a sense of reality but he still felt it was all bit too much! Meanwhile the Stone was getting angrier and angrier!
"There I was, lying down, minding my own business, being a part of the bank of the pond and then you come along and put me in your pocket along with all sorts of things that have been lying in it for God knows how long! Then you paint me all over! Would you like it if someone painted you?!"
Rahul thought maybe he wouldn't, but some of the smaller children he knew seemed to think it was rather cool to have their faces painted!
The Stone was now hopping around in anger. "But I'm not at all surprised! It's exactly what you People do!"
"What People?" asked Rahul.
"You People " the Stone said"Human Beings! You walk around like you own the place and use whatever you want and destroy whatever you want with not a second thought! Everything has it's own importance in this universe, you know! Even the moon is a rock, though it's much bigger than me, of course! Would you treat it the way you treated me?!"
By now Rahul thought the Stone had a point and was beginning to feel a bit ashamed of himself.
"I could take you back," he said.
The Stone calmed down a bit. "Well, OK!" it said. "I suppose you didn't know any better. There was a family of tiny insects who lived under me and are probably getting soaked in the rain right now, but I'll let that pass."
Rahul had to wait till the next day for the rain to stop and take the Stone back, but thankfully it stayed quiet after that! All that talking and hopping around had probably exhausted it!
The next morning he took the Stone back and put it down where he had picked it up from. It settled into the mud and gave Rahul a crooked smile with it's painted-on mouth! Rahul sat next to it for a while and then went home.
He went to visit it again the next day but couldn't find it. There was no Stone there with a painted face. It had rained again and probably the paint had all got washed off! Then he saw a stone that was surrounded with some runny colours. He saw that it was the Stone. but now it looked like any other stone! Rahul was happy. He had sort of put things right!
He told Shivani what happened and she asked him a silly question."Rahul, do you think we will all be able to put things right and get the world back to how it was before we interfered so much with it? What do you think we should do?"
Now you know what you have to do before I tell you what Rahul said!

Jatin and Laila spent some time thinking and Jatin said, "I think it's because they're free to do what they want. Just think! They don't have anyone to answer to! They can do as they please!
No school, no homework or going to office or doing household chores! What a life! Really, they seem to have all the fun." He felt a little sorry for himself and thought that, actually, he had a very raw deal, not to mention all other humans!
Laila took a little longer to come up with an answer. Then she said slowly, "Maybe it's because they're doing what they're supposed to be doing?"
"What?!" Jatin didn't know what she was talking about! "Please, could you explain that so we could all understand?"
"I think," said Laila, "it's because they are closer to what nature meant them to be. They look after themselves, live as they are naturally meant to live and are not dependent on anyone. When they are pampered and spoilt and kept as pets they lose their instincts. Except for those that are lucky enough to be the pets of someone who is wise enough not to smother their "natural nature"!
Shivani was really impressed with Laila's answer!
"Yes!" she said. "I think that is more or less what it is! After all if we were not allowed to be children and had someone doing for us all that we were supposed to be doing we wouldn't be happy either!"
Jatin was not so sure! He felt that he really wouldn't mind if someone would do all his homework and clean his room and go to school for him! But I think if he tried that for a few days he would be unhappy too!

Shivani , Jatin and Laila were returning from school. Their school was very close to their homes and they walked back everyday with some other children who lived in the same neighborhood. They lived in a town, which was not very big but was a bustling place all the same. It was beautiful and green. Many shady trees lined the roads. There were little parks alongside the roads where the children could play or just sit and watch the birds and squirrels as they went about their work busily and cheerfully. Shivani always wondered why birds and animals rarely looked sad, especially the ones which were free to roam around and live their lives freely. Some of the pets she saw in houses did not look happy. Some of them did, like the bouncy little poodle in Deena’s house, which seemed to never stop wagging it’s tail. But others, like Ramesh’s Pomeranian, always looked sad or bored or grouchy! Animals that were free rarely looked sad or bored or grouchy. No, they looked busy, happy, gay, chirpy and also, strangely intelligent! They looked very clever, very smart!
Shivani asked her friends if they knew why this was. “ Why” she asked “ is Stray Cat so cheerful all the time?” Stray Cat was the name they gave to a grey cat that roamed around their neighborhood and depended on the kindheartedness of the people who lived there. Sometimes they weren’t so kind and then Stray Cat had to be clever enough to find food for herself. This she did quite often and it was quite a common sight to see her shooting out of some house being chased by a woman brandishing a stick and screaming at the top of her lungs. Then that cat would sit calmly on a nearby wall, lick herself clean, look smilingly at Shivani and her friends who were admiring her, blink a couple of times and go to sleep! It wasn’t an easy life for Stray Cat but she made it seem easy. And she seemed to enjoy herself!Why did she seem so cheerful?
Jatin and Laila looked at each other. Shivani always had these kinds of questions. It was quite irritating really because they had used their brains so much at school they just didn’t want to use them to find answers to Shivani’s silly questions. But they knew that if they didn’t she would go on and on till they reached home. What do you think the reason is? Shivani would love to know! Laila and Jatin had some answers too but I’ll tell you what they were in a couple of days. After you post your answers! Shivani will be waiting! She wants to know why the animals in the park and animals like Stray Cat are happy while some of the pet animals aren't, though they are so well looked after!