“Why is Chiku still in bed?” Chiku’s father, Atul, was astonished. It was not Sunday or any other holiday. Chiku was in his grandmother and his room. Chiku’s mother and father were in hurry of leaving for office. They both work. Chiku’s mother used to ready him for school before they leave.
Atul wanted his son to be always ahead in life and be a successful man, like him. He was working in a national investment firm. Wow.
“Come on get up Chiku, why don’t you wake up on time? You know what happened to bad kids? Dragoon from china takes them to the land of communist, where you can’t spend money as and when you want. When I was of your age...” Chiku’s mother came to the room hearing the raised voice. Chiku’s grandmother was also trying to explain something to Atul. “It’s getting late Atul” Anita, chiku’s mother, Atul’s wife, grandma’s daughter-in-law said, “drop me to my office first, let’s go” Chiku was still held by his hand by his father, he was half in bed and half in air; he was half covered in blanket, and his other hand was being pulled by his grandmother. He was confused, whether to cry or not.
“Arrey, leave him, HE IS NOT FEELING WELL!” Chiku’s grandmother was a school teacher, and she knows how to make her presence felt in chaos. “He is not feeling well” she said it again as if uttering those words for the first time. “What? What happened?” Atul realized his mistake, he felt that chiku’s hand was little warmer than normal. Atul checked his temperature, Chiku had fever. “Let’s go, I’ve called Doctor, he’ll come here I’ve told Aai to take his care, I’ll be calling him.” Anita told everything in a breath and then turned to Chiku. He placed Chiku well in bed, put the blanket around him and kissed him on forehead. “Beta, we’ll have to rush off. Aaji is here with you, I’ll call you from office, and doctor uncle will come to check you. Anita said the same things again, now just for Chiku. Chiku nodded.
Aaji went to the main door to see Atul and Anita off. She closed the door, and sighed. Chiku also sighed in his bed. He has indeed started to feel ill now, more than he is supposed to feel. Aaji returned to his room, with a steaming bowl of kheer, a glass of water and something in a little dish. “Have this, and you will feel better, even before doctor comes” “No I don’t want anything, nobody cares for me” by saying this Chiku pulled the blanket over his head. “Arrey see here what I’ve brought you” Aaji tried, but Chiku knew Aaji’s this trick. Aaji pulled the blanket away from his face, “They have to go to the office each day” Aaji said. “Even when their single child is not feeling well?” Chiku was clearly upset. “Who said you are not well. You know why your temperature is warm today?”, “Why?” “You like tea? Right? Though it’s not good for your age. But how do you like it? If we mix water, milk, sugar and tea leaves together, will you like it? No. Because, it has to be heated and mixed well, for perfect taste. Our body is like a tea kettle. We study, we play, we listen to stories, we paint, we fight; but to make it all enjoyable our body needs to mix it all up, and heat it. That’s why our body is warmer than non-living things. Today your body has warmed up a little more.” While explaining this Aaji was feeding kheer to Chiku. “Just like when Mom keeps the gas on and milk spills out!” Chiku extended the logic. “Correct, so what we do to cool tea down, we blow on them, and keep it aside in a saucer. So just like that you will rest for today and tomorrow you will be alright!” Aaji cheered him up. Chiku was excited but then he realized that if he gets alright he will have to go to the school, which was a catch. So his mind was filled by school thoughts, anger, fantasy, love and care, Aaji. It was a hot tea spot now, where all this things were getting mixed up.
And he was feeling sleepy. Aaji covered him in blanket, took the book she was reading and rested on her bed.
The threads of blanket was going in his nostril, he sneezed out his sleep, and like a big bang explosion his eyes opened up. He came to senses after 10-42 seconds, and he was blank for next 3 seconds. Well, he saw that Aaji’s head was actually buried in the book she was reading. She was holding the book in her hands, her trunk was visible, and neck was there, but her face was actually transformed in to a 2-dimensional plane, and fused with the book. He saw a red ball was bouncing of the walls continuously like a computer game; he had lost that red ball and was searching for it from few days. He moved ahead to grab that ball, his blanket elevated slowly, but a lizard from the roof moved ahead, her head become so large, she had eyes of the colour of puke, she leaped ahead and swallowed that red ball. Then her gaze moved towards Chiku. Chiku grabbed the flying blanket and tried to hide under it. But again the threads went in his nostrils and he sneezed loudly, the blanket flew off and fell on the lizard. The lizard actually got scared by it, and ran away making a barking sound. A stray dog near Chiku’s house made a similar sound when Chiku threw a lit cracker bomb on him and it exploded.
Well, after he sneezed his room got transformed in a mirror glass tube. He was standing at one end of it, and by the air pressure of his sneeze the other end was getting stretched out, that lizard was running away but the surface was too shiny and slippery for her to run fast. The suction cups on her feet were unable to make a contact as the inner wall of the tube was also spinning abruptly. But she managed to run towards the other end. Chiku was back lit now, and laser lights were flickering indiscriminately in the tube. He laughed, and his voice echoed. He laughed loudly, and echo was loud. He laughed even louder and shrieked in joy. The other end of the tube started to come closer by now. And the glass walls couldn’t take his shriek and a small crack appeared on the wall above Chiku’s head, Chiku looked at it, it started to expand slowly, the other end was also nearing creating pressure on that crack. Chiku heard a sound like a roar, it was mixed with barking. Suddenly the glass walls exploded, but the glass pieces got dissolved in thin air instead falling down. The tube just disappeared. And now he was on a summit of a great mountain. The sound of roar was coming nearer, he peeked over the edge, and the lizard was coming towards him barking loud. Chiku smiled, he knew how to scare the lizard. He picked a strand of grass and inserted in his nostrils, and he sneezed loudly. The lizard slid down a little bit but continued soon. Suddenly, Chiku sensed that there was a roar sound coming up from the sky. He looked up. And what he saw was jaw-dropping....
...
A dragon was flying in the sky, and coming furiously towards him.
...
The flapping of his wings was causing a big storm, and the trees on his way ere getting destroyed by that storm. His claws were by of titanium, and he was breathing out poisonous blue gas. And for no reason he was roaring and spitting fountain of fire. One such moment he exhaled fire and smoke at the same time, he was out of breath for a few moments, his face turned blue and he forgot to flip wings. But he recovered soon, and regained his wrath.
Meanwhile the lizard came up, and was moving towards Chiku. Chiku stretched hand and grabbed the blanket from his bed. He made some nan-chaku moves with that blanket, and smashed on the lizard’s head. But the lizard grabbed the end of the blanket in her toothless mouth; Chiku hurled the other end, and the lizard with it. The lizard got thrown in air and got bumped on the flying dragon. The lizard’s tail got detached from her body, the lizard fell off the cliff but the tail remained, moving like she has her own life.
The dragon landed on the ground in front of Chiku. Chiku was backing out; this was the same dragon his father used to mention about. The dragon looked at Chiku with his fiery eyes, and was moving towards Chiku. He remembered all the gruesome description his father has portrayed of the killing by the dragon. The dragon’s footsteps were causing tremors through the whole mountain range. Chiku thought of his father and all the crazy ideas he used to tell him to destroy the dragon. And to Chiku’s surprise, his mom and dad came there climbing the cliff. Chiku was moved, he was cursing his dad in the morning but before any superhero could reach there, his mom and dad arrived to save Chiku. His dad fired a range og credit cards on the dragon, but the dragon chewed it all. then his father started dancing and singing loud, and built a space ship to move the dragon’s attention. Then mom and dad started kissing each other to scare the dragon off, Dragon was disturbed a little. Chiku didn’t understand nothing. But the dragon regained his posture again, and breathed a fire shower on them, Chiku’s parents ran and was safe. As the last defence Chiku’s father picked up the half dead tail of the lizard and started hitting the dragon by it. Dragon moved his own tail and smacked them both in one fine move. They both fell off the cliff, where the lizard was waiting for them.
Now Chiku wanted some real superheroes to save him Chiku called for Superman, Batman, Spiderman, they all came flying. They saw the Dragon with furious anger. They saw the hammer and sickle on his forehead and they got even more furious. They attacked the dragon, but from the dragon’s body the similar anti-superheroes appeared. They were made up of plastic, but they were more in numbers, they attacked the real superheroes and destroyed them in no time, in this battle many of the fake superheroes also got smashed. Now Chiku was alone with the dragon. He was scared. In a poor attempt to save him, he picked up a stone and hurled at the dragon.
Suddenly, earth shattering sound rocked the mountain, the sky got clouded, and there was flashes circling the earth. And up from the sky Chiku’s aaji came down flying. She has tucked her sari well, and ready to take the dragon down. And what was his secret weapon? She has the rolling pin, with which she used to make perfect chapattis. She showed off some kung-fu moves. She said hi to Chiku, Chiku was ecstatic, and jumping hysterically.
Aaji jumped up in the sky, did a sumersault and landed behind the dragon. She picked the dragon by his tail and hurled in the air and threw off the cliff. Dragon was furious, while falling down he flipped wings and got in the air and attacked aaji again. But Aaji was ready for him. She took him by his nose smacked in the ground, and put the pressing roll in his nostrils, it was smashed now. Then she tore out his wings, and again hurled off the cliff. This time he didn’t have wings to flip...
Then Aaji saved Chiku’s mom dad also.
Chiku was running towards his aaji to hug, when he rolled down a stone and fell on the ground.
At the same time, he woke up in his bed; he was sweating by all this experience. Aaji was seating in front of him. “Look your fever is gone! Wait I’ll make tea for us”, Aaji checked him and said. She turned around and went inside the kitchen to make tea.
But the press role in her hand didn’t go unnoticed from Chiku.
(with massive inputs from Lee)
