A gift to treasure – The Hindu

Tara heard a car door close. Then she heard the sound of rolling suitcase wheels. That could only mean one thing: her aunt and cousin had arrived!

Mother and Father helped Tina and her mother bring in their luggage. Tara looked at her cousin. She felt shy. Tina was visiting India after one year.

“Tara, why don’t you take Tina to your room?” Father suggested with a big smile. He knew how much the two cousins had missed each other. Before Tina’s family had moved abroad, the two girls would spend every Sunday together. Reading books, eating cookies and going to the rooftop garden to admire flowers made them happiest.

Tentative start

In her room, Tara and Tina settled themselves onto bean bags. There was a stack of storybooks near them. A computer was on, with its screen displaying a picture of the cousins.

Tara was not sure what to say. She wondered if Tina had changed. Did she even like the same things any more? The last year had been hard. Different time zones in India and the U.S. gave them little time to chat.

Tina spoke first. “I missed you,” she said.

Tara burst into tears. “I missed you too,” she cried.

Tina began to cry, too. Just then, their mothers walked in with plates of dahi vada. Seeing the wet cheeks and pink noses, Tina’s mother hugged the two girls.

“You know, I really missed your mother,” Tara’s mother told Tina.

The sisters left the room to chat about life in the U.S.

“Tara, do you remember the little notebook that you gave me before I left?”

Tara nodded. The notebook had been made by an aunt in her neighbourhood. The cover was pink, and Tara had drawn a cute cat on it. Taking the notebook out of her bag, Tina handed it to her cousin.

A life shared

“I wanted to share everything about my new life with you. I am sorry for not chatting or calling enough,” Tina said.

Tara said sorry too. Then she added, “I guess we could send each other emails instead of trying to fix a chat time.”

Tina agreed. She ate some idli and asked Tara to open the little notebook. “Go on. Open it, silly,” she told her.

Illustration: Sreejith R. Kumar

Slowly opening the notepad, Tara realised that her cousin was sharing her diary with her. The first entry had been written on the plane, as Tina travelled to her new home. There were daily notes about her days in the U.S.

Tara couldn’t believe it. Her cousin had not skipped even one day!

“I can read it?” she asked?

“Tara, I wrote everything for you! You have to read it,” Tina explained.

Tina finished another idli, as her cousin and best friend read about the first days at school and Tina’s first experience of seeing snow. There were notes on her first dance class and how she got used to calling adults by their first name.

Tara giggled, “This is a long letter!”

Tina laughed. “Don’t forget you have a whole month to read it.”

“You are right,” Tara agreed, putting the notebook in her desk drawer. The gift was like treasure for her.

Before she could eat more idli, Tina took something out from her bag. It was a small notepad. There was a smiling cat drawn on the cover. Handing it to Tara, she said, “It’s your turn to fill this in for me.”