MOBILE MANIA

 

MOBILE MANIA

 

Mrs. Sumitra Devi, a Primary school teacher

Entered Class IV to take the last period of the day;

"What will you teach, Didi today – grammar or literature? "

Echoed the little, rapt pupils in a chorus hilarious, lively and gay.

 

Before proceeding to teach, with a smile Didi asked them a question:

Children, what’ll you beg God if He agrees a wish of yours to sanction?

Now, all of you, do write your replies in your copies and submit in a quarter of an hour.

But, no sooner did the teacher collect the copies than the school was over!

 

Thus, the teacher took the copies home with her to check at leisure.

Some wanted holidays, some wished for their parents’s good health, 

Some begged to know, prior to every Exam., the math question paper,

But, a little girl’s wish caught Sumitra Devi's gaping gaze and stopped her breath!

 

The little girl’s solemn appeal was this: “O God, the Almighty! May I

Be gifted with a mobile, for after school hours I feel alone at home, a sty

Where maids clean many cooks cook while listening to musics using their earphones!

Papa has forgotten to love me as before, for he ever works on laptop or talks of loans,

Mom has ceased to care for my breakfast, dinner, homework and good night kisses,

For, besides her school work at home, she has to attend to her friends’ non-stop calls

And, sincerely reply  to her Insta, FB, Whatsapp chats. And she too never misses

To view so many videos on YouTube, and watch Odia, Hindi News, as night falls

As the day dawns she fails to notice! What to speak of my so called loving brother?

 

He and his mobile are ‘Q’ and ‘U’ pals who’re never seen at odds even a moment,

So to overcome my isolation and boredom at home after my school hours are spent

I am in dying need of a mobile phone! While reading the poignant request of the little kid

The teacher shed Seas of sour tears, and narrated the tale to her husband, who did

Try to convince, and advise her to call the ‘girl’s’ parents to school and convince them so well

That they shouldn’t ignore to care for their girl again for their ‘mobile mania' addictive and irresistible:

Upon which the teacher wept convulsively, and unable to her delirious sobs quell,

She told the unlucky girl was none but their ‘Khusi’, when shame and repentance did rule!

 

Since then instead of ‘mobile mania’, love and care for kids reigned at Khusi’s home like never before:

“Let mobile be used as a Healer, never a silent Killer of happiness at home!’ they all seriously swore.