Anita, her brother Ganesh and their parents were going to visit their uncle and aunt who lived in a small village. Anita was very excited. She had never been to a village before.
Anita- I am very excited about going to a village. What is it like, mother?
Mother- Oh, it is very beautiful. You will enjoy playing in the fields with your cousins.
Ganesh- Does uncle and Aunt go to office like father and you?
Mother- no, they work on the farm. They grow sugarcane and rice. They have many cows and buffalos.
Ganesh- how will we reach the farm? Are there autos and jeeps to take us there?
Father- no, there are buses. May be your uncle will bring his tractor. Then we can ride on it to the village.
Anita- Are there big houses in village?
Mother- of course, there are small houses and cottages in the village. Some of them are big with tiled roofs. Others are smaller with attached roofs. There is a wall and two big neem trees behind uncle’s house. When we were young, we used to sit under the trees at night. Grandfather would tell us stories. The people of the village gather to listen to the stories. Sometimes when it was very hot, we would sleep under the trees. They smelled so good and it felt so cool.
Father- children, the train is about to stop at our station. Let’s pick up the bags and move towards the exit. The train will stop here for only two minutes.
The family gets off at the station.
Uncle: welcome to you. Would the children like to ride home on the tractor?
Anita- yes, we would! What fun!
Ganesh- will the tractor take us through the fields, uncle?
Uncle- no, it might spoil the crops. However, you can see the fields from the road as we drive.
Kiran and the post man in the town.
Kiran gets bored doing the same work every day. What does he do?
Kiran did the same work everyday. He sorted out letters, covers and parcels. Then he put them into three hundred letter boxes. He went to the same houses every day. He met the same people. You see, Kiran was a postman.
People liked Krishna. He did his work very well. All the people he went to were his friends. There was Johan, who loved to climbing trees, and David, who had a kitten called Jojo. Ganesh was Kiran’s friend too. He would run out to talk to kiran whenever he heard his bicycle bell.
One day Kiran said to him, `oh, I am so bored! I feel like going on a holiday.’
He thought he would go and visit his brother, Ram, who lived in a village.
Ganesh took Kiran to the bus-stop on his bicycle.
The bus raced down the road. Kiran looked at the letter boxes on the way.
`I won’t even think of work on my holiday,’ he thought.
The bus took about eight hours to reach the village. Kiran reached Ram’s house in the evening. Ram and his family came running out of the house to meet kiran. They were very happy to see him. Kiran played with Kavita and Meena, Ram’s children. He also helped Ram in the fields.
After a few days, Kiran started missing his work. He also missed the people he used to meet everyday. One day, he went for a walk with Ram.
They walked past the village post office. Kiran remembered his post office and felt sad. He wanted to go back home.
When he talked to Ram about it, Ram said, `Instead of going back, why don’t you write letter to your friends?’
Kiran liked Ram’s idea. He went to the post office. He was happy with the smell of stamps, envelopes and glue.
Kiran bought some postcards. That evening, he did not go out for a walk. He wrote letters. He wrote to Johan, David and Ganesh.
He also wrote to his friends, Ramesh, Suresh, Savita, and Kavita.
Then Kiran posted the letters. He felt happy.
`They will be so glad to hear from me! I will wait for their letters. I am sure some of them will write back,’ Kiran told Ram with a big smile.