Aditya Bhattacharjee, Class-X,
Maria’s Public School, Guwahati.
After the lockdown was relaxed, I went out on my bicycle, one day. The school was still closed, and only a few shops in the vicinity had opened, maintaining all COVID-19 protocols. Just as I went into one of the shops to buy a packet of milk, someone rode away – on my bicycle!
I took the packet of milk and started running behind that ‘someone’, who was fleeing with my bicycle. I shouted, “Thief! Thief! Someone please stop him,” only to hear an echo in a strange voice. That’s when I realised that I hadn’t paid the shopkeeper for the milk packet, and I had run away with it! The strange voice was that of the shopkeeper’s. He was chasing me.
But I couldn’t afford to stop now; the bicycle mattered a lot to me. I had to do something, and so I did. I threw the milk packet straight on that ‘someone’s’ head, as I continued to run behind him. That made him lose his balance, and he fell down as the packet burst right on his face.
I grabbed my bicycle, but he ran away. The shopkeeper caught up with me and said, “Give me my money, you thief!” I replied, “Wait.”
That’s when I realised that the ‘someone’ had just pickpocketed me. Perhaps, the world was better before the pandemic!