It was a busy evening of Navaratri day at gandhi chowk of Mahasamund. Full of crowd and chaos ,Gitika was working on her holiday homework eassy which was about “Good Deed”.
But she was enjoying views of festive market through her balcony,Meanwhile she heard someone calling her name out loud “Gitika.......Gitika come downstairs let’s go for Durga Darshan “........
Her friends were there for her of Gitika’s neighborhood.
Group of five friends had made a plan of visiting their towns Navratri artwork all together. So,Gitika rushes towards her mother for permission,while her mother was making Prashad (An sacred offering to God on worship) for next morning pooja (prayer).
She told five of them to be safe and take care of themselves on which one of Gitika’s friend shruti said ” don’t worry aunty we’ll be okay “...........
Gitika’s mother nodded her head and gave them some money for spending on vendors and she let them go.....But her heart was still not allowing to let kids go out in such rush festive evening all by themselves. So, she ordered her elder son kartik ( Gitika’s big brother) to go with kids...
Kartik first denied her order by saying “they are not small kids now they are grown-ups now let them go mother “........But seeing her worried face kartik agreed to go with them.....
Gitika’s four friends were Kamal behen ji , Kamal behen ji , Raju bhai ji and Pratik bhai ji they all were stupid according to Kartik as he was elder and sincere....
As Kartik came downstairs with car keys and told them to hop in the car immediately Raju said “are we going in a car in such rush hour, we should walk to Pandaal ,it’s just after 10 minutes of walk”.......
Right after Raju bhai ji Kamal behen also said ” yes bhaiya ji Raju bhai ji is right, Our most of the time will be spent on traffic jam ,it’s better to walk “. Then they went by walking, Kartik was about to gave them instructions to walk on sides,
But before him saying anything they started walking properly on their sides of road on footpath he was quite impressed.
Soon after few minutes they reached to their first Durga pandaal. Everyone was amazed by artwork on sculpture of goddess Durga , shruti’s jaw dropped as she looked at the beautiful sculpture and asked ” How a sculpture made with mud could be this beautiful?” . Then the offered flower and fruit to the goddess and got Prashad.
Kartik clicked some pictures of them and they moved for next pandaal ,there also they did darshan, praying and some offering again they received some Prashad. Which pratik was about to throw and he got scold bye priest , then he gave a plastic carrybad to Pratik to keep Prashad in Meanwhile Kamal behen ji came and took out steel container from her side bag to keep Prashad and she refused plastic bag , for which kartik and the priest appreciated her.
She told the that she kept the tiffin box because she knew that they can’t have all sweet Prashad at once .......
One by one the saw every sculpture and pandaals of town,and kartik was thinking how he had thought about the kids being stupid buy they turned out to be obedient and disciplined kids, he didn’t got any chance to scold or discipline them the whole time...........
Then kartik asked kids ,what they want to eat here in market, Gitika wanted panipuri ,Kamal wanted chaat Raju wanted to have some jalebi and pratik was demanding some samosas with chutney then kartik asked shruti what do you want to have while she got her eyes on Bhandara( Temporary religious open free kitchen)
She pointed that out and said ” let’s have a full meal there instead of spending money on unhygienic vendor” .......Every one agreed except pratik he was quite stubborn and wanted only samosas, so Kartik suggested him to wait for 15 to 20 minutes till they eat at Bhandara then they will go for samosas......
Pratik stayed outside the tent looking at them enjoying Bhandara’s food ,he couldn’t resist himself and joined them along and he ate the most poories. After they ate the food kartik gave some money to organizer there but food was free ....Organizer denied first then kartik said ” we ate for free but could have eaten outside Via paying, your feeding everyone for free consider it a very small contribution ” and thanked for hygienic and delicious Food...........
Kartik asked pratik if he wants samosas now and pratik answered “I’m full now the food was better then any restaurant’s samosas ” they all laughed .........
After that they were on their way to back home
Gitika saw small dead sparrow on side path of pandaal and started to move towards that bird 🐦, kartik said “what happened ” and went behind her . They found that she’s not dead but the bird was injured and her beak was sealed by chewing gum that’s she couldn’t fly and feed herself. It probably happened when the sparrow was chugging on food and got her beak on throwed chewed gum ..........
The bird was suffering right beside goddess’s pandaal but nobody bothered to take a look at poor little bird . So, as soon as they saw the helpless bird they decided to help the bird out, kartik gently took her on his palm scraped gum by stick , wiped bird’s beak properly then Kamal feeds the water and fruit to bird .Raju suggested to take the sparrow to a veterinarian and just after couple of minutes petting the bird flewed away from kartik’s hand ..........
The people around applauded for their Good Deed.......
It was night already , so kartik responsibly dropped everyone to their home and then him and Gitika went home. As soon as they reached home Gitika told about what happened today and how beautiful the goddess’s sculpture were..
Gitika sat on her study table and started packing her school bad and realized that her essay in pending about ‘Good Deed’ ... she opened her notebook and wrote about today’s incident how they saved a bird’s life ..................
Everyone Kamal behen ji, pratik bhai ji,shruti behen ji and Raju bhai ji told everyone around about today’s incident and they got a lots of appreciation for that due to which they got confidence of doing good deeds in future too....
After coming home kartik discussed with his parents how he had thought that Gitika and her friends must be stupid and dumb just because he was elder and they were younger than him ,But today he was proven wrong all kids seem to be disciplined and wise according to their age ..
How Kamal was aware about plastic bag and brought her own tiffin also they walked properly on footpath path . How shruti suggested to eat at Bhandara instead of spending money on junk foods also how they all helped the poor bird out when no one was even caring about that bird...
Kartik realized that he doesn’t spend enough time with his sibling and he knows so much less about them and had very obvious or wrong perspective about the kids which was changed today... her mother tapped his shoulders and said that why she use to tell him to play with Gitika and her friends , which kartik use to deny because they were younger than him ... But now he told his mother that he will spend a quality time with them from now on.
After holidays Navaratri Gitika narrated her essay on her classroom and got applauded.....