1. Who’s the daddy?
Stories of exchanging ages have thrilled us over the ages, and filled us with awe
when our grannies had narrated them at bedtime. Here is one such story and this
is indeed something all of us have wished for at some point of time in our lives.
Subal woke up one morning to discover himself quite smaller. His clothes
became too big for him, short sleeves longer than his arms almost touching his
feet. These changes apart, he was quite startled to find changes in his mood too.
He felt an unusual surge of energy within him, he wanted to jump around and
play. He wished to climb tall trees and swing around like monkeys. It was then
that the words re-echoed in his ears: Tomorrow morning you will be as young
as your son.
He rushed to his son to check for a change in him. Sure enough, there he saw
Sushil immersed in a deep sleep. Subal, not able to withstand the sleepy Sushi,
woke him up. His dress had grown extremely light and body had become
strongly bloated. What more, nearly half of his face was covered with a salt-and-
pepper beard and moustache, with just a little trace of the unruly hair that
had covered his head earlier. An old and matured man is what replaced the
young and naughty Subal.
Comical and fascinating as it may seem, you’d also be surprised to find that
these were exactly what they had got exactly what they had wished for. While
the father had wished to be young once again to lock himself in a room and
study, the young Sushil could not wait to grow older. He wanted the freedom of
the old age. Surprisingly, the Goddess of Wish paid heed to their wishes and
granted them.
It would not be untrue to say that this exchange of ages had in fact instilled a
degree of laziness to study in Subal and an irritation to loud noises in Sushil.
The now father Sushil is forced to go to school and now of the old tricks of
‘stomach ache, tooth ache’ would not work out because the old Subal-well
aware of the antics he had experimented till the previous night-would force him
to school. Though Sushil suffers from cramps and pains sometimes, he is quite
content with this transition. Subal is also quite hopeful he’d be able to overcome
his laziness and get ready to hit the books soon as he wished for earlier and
succeed in being a civil officer of the highest ranks.Days to come would sure
have more stories to be told and let us wish them good luck.