Notion Press
Old No. 38, New No. 6
McNichols Road, Chetpet
Chennai - 600 031
First Published by Notion Press 2016
Copyright © Ananya V. Ganesh 2016
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 978-1-946048-69-1
This book has been published with all efforts taken to
make the material error-free after the consent of the
author. However, the author and the publisher do not
assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party
for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or
omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from
negligence, accident, or any other cause.
No part of this book may be used, reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission from the
author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
Dedicated to
ƒƒ Amma for encouraging me and making my dreams
come true
ƒƒ Appa for opening up the world of books to me
ƒƒ Mangalam Patti (Grandma) for tirelessly telling me
stories to inspire my imagination
ƒƒ A.V.N Thatha (Grandpa) and Usha Patti (Grandma)
for standing by me always
ƒƒ Sundhu Thatha (Grandpa) for passing on his gift of
writing to me
ƒƒ My cute little sister for keeping me on my toes always
ƒƒ My Acharyas (Teachers) for motivating me
ƒƒ All my well-wishers and friends for being there for me
Contents
Forewordix
Prefacexi
Acknowledgementxiii
1. The Messy Desk
1
2. A ‘Tail’ of Laddoos
9
3. My Secret Scribes
15
4. A Friend Found
31
5. The Mango Pickle
35
6. I Believe in the Impossible!
41
7. At the Moors
45
8. The King’s Gift
51
9. A Bowl of Happiness
57
vii
The Messy Desk
I
t was a damp morning. I was sitting in my room,
watching the rain drops splash onto the sand outside,
making it wet and slushy to walk on. I took a glance
at my desk…the messiest desk ever! I walked over to
it and heaved a big sigh and to my great, great, great
astonishment, a little ant suddenly showed up and talked
to me!
The ant started out as, “Yuck!” A big ‘welcome
speech’, right? “Not even an ant can live in this ‘paradise’,
without a wasp or a roach knocking on her door, just
waiting to devour her!” she spat out in disgust.
9 Chocolatey Bites
“Um…Who are you?” I demanded, nervously
hoping she wouldn’t have supernatural powers and turn
me into some garden lizard.
“Oh! Where are my manners? I’m Cheeni, the sixth
ant of the fifth column, fifty-second row, thirty-fifth line
and …”
“Come on, give me a break! Term holidays just
started!” I interrupted Cheeni, getting annoyed at the
thought of another math lecture.
“And who may you be, oh, four feet tall giant who is
standing before me?” she questioned dramatically.
“Oh, I’m Anika. One millionth person you would
expect to be talking to an ant in this world,” I murmured,
fervently praying that she wouldn’t whip out a gun and
declare that I was her greatest enemy like Buzz Lightyear
did to Woody in Toy Story.
“Nice to meet you, Anika!” she answered warmly,
motioning me to shake her antenna.
A minute later, she was scurrying across my desk
muttering something that sounded like this, “We will
need that thrown away…Ah, yes, a vase here and maybe
just a little pen holder over there, ooh! And a nice little
pin-up board on top to remind you not to mess up your
desk again. There, perfecto!”
Suddenly, I felt a bright, bluish green light grip
me and before I knew it, I was whisked away to some
unknown land! At first, I was scared, but when I looked
around, I was so taken in by my surroundings that I forgot
to, scream my head off and run away into the horizon.
2
The Messy Desk
The sky was the brightest blue I had ever seen, the soil
was smooth and warm, unlike the harsh concrete floor I
had been used to. I could smell tulips and lavenders in
the fresh air blowing across my face; the crocuses were
lovely just to gaze at. The clouds were as white as a brand
new layer of snow, and the sun shone brightly like a ball
of gold. It was breathtaking to behold nature in such a
beautiful way! Then and there, I knew that I would never
forget this bright blue sky I had seen today.
“Enjoying the scenery, are we?” asked Cheeni,
disrupting my pleasant thoughts.
“Why have you brought me here?” I demanded,
purposely ignoring her question.
“Oh, only because of your desk…,” Cheeni replied
deliberately letting her voice trail off.
“What does this have to do with my desk?” I
questioned, even though I wasn’t really surprised.
“I brought you here because there is a clean desk
competition held by our mayor, King Antie Anty Anter
Antag Anta Anten Antem Antman Antan,” she replied.
“Mr.Antie Anter - wait, what?” I asked, seriously
confused.
“We call him King Nine A’s,” she said, smirking at
my ‘slow’ thinking process.
“Okay, I think,” I said, a bit uncertain.
”We have to go enter you into the competition!” she
cried excitedly and grabbed my hand, making me run to
wherever she was taking me.
3
9 Chocolatey Bites
“Here we are!” she announced, sounding a bit
nervous but at the same time delighted. I looked up
and saw a huge anthill in front of my eyes, but this
wasn’t a typical two feet anthill you’d see on a jungle
trek! This anthill was taller than the tallest skyscraper
in the world and looked like a fairytale castle, that too,
with the most vibrant colours I had ever seen! Cheeni
literally had to pull me inside as I was so awe-struck
by this humongous structure made by such tiny things,
of which we don’t take any notice in our lives. When I
entered the anthill, or rather the castle, I saw thick red
carpets strewn on the floor, portraits and photographs of
very posh looking ant ladies with beehive hair-dos, ant
sports jocks in sweatshirts with bandanas on their pimple
sized heads, ant duchesses and dukes in princely robes
holding sceptres and curtsying, and old ant grannies in
babushkas.
I looked ahead and saw an ant dressed in flowing
robes, his hair slightly greying, sitting on a throne,
holding a sceptre in his right hand and the other hand
cautiously moving to his decorated sword hilt, with a
wise look on his face.
“Greetings, Your Royal Antiness! I have come from
the sixth house on Antsfort Avenue in the Desk of
Danger and Disgustingness to enter Anika, um, I mean,
this human, standing beside me, into the Clean Desk
Competition on the fifth day of the fifth month of the
fifth year of the fifth century, um, I mean the twenty-first
century!” she announced proudly and a bit nervously,
bowing down before King Nine A’s.
4
The Messy Desk
“Rise Cheeni, ant from the sixth house on Antsfort
Avenue! This human will be allowed to participate in the
fourth competition of all ants from the Desk of Danger
and Disgustingness which is on the fifth day of the fifth
month of the fifth year of the twenty-first century!” he
declared grandly.
“Yes!” both of us chorused, slapping a high five onto
each other’s palm/sole.
When we got back to the human world, the first
thing I did was stare at my desk for about a millionth of
a second before exclaiming, “Cheeni! The fifth of May is
tomorrow! How am I supposed to clear this up, in one
afternoon and evening put together?!” She simply smiled
and let a shrill whistle escape from her lips. I thought
that I would be looking at every single dog in the country
5
9 Chocolatey Bites
the next minute. But instead, every single bird and insect
were hopping onto my ‘oh so messy’ desk.
“Tweet, tweet! What can we do for you?” asked one
of the sparrows, curtsying cheerfully.
“All you have to do is clear up and decorate Madame
Messy’s desk,” she replied, glancing so sternly at me
that I started to shift uncomfortably, ashamed of my
‘cleanliness’.
“Ooh! I love cleaning things up!” cried out a few
beetles and spiders.
“Great! Now, let’s not be desk potatoes, and get some
work done!” said Cheeni, encouragingly.
“Huzzah! Huzzah!
It is time do something!
Huzzah! Huzzah!
But, hide when the telephone rings!
Huzzah! Huzzah!
We love cleaning up!
Huzzah! Huzzah!
None of us are lazy grumps!”
They all chimed into what was, probably, their ‘Clean
up, clean up, everybody clean up!’ song.
In a few extremely short hours, my desk was the most
‘natural’ looking desk on earth! Mrs. Chibby and Mrs.
Chuzzette, the lovely old spiders spun intricate spider
webs on the top and corners of my desk, Amanda and
Miranda, the weavers, had built pen holders out of their
funky nest material and John and Gabby, the beetles, had
6
The Messy Desk
made glow-in-the-dark paper ball lamps hanging from
the top! It was awesome, and I seriously wished that I
had thought of taking a snap using the photo booth app
in my laptop!
Finally, we set out to the competition, and it took
only five muscular ants to carry the desk and the lamps!
A grim looking judge with golden rimmed spectacles on
his crooked nose, which appeared to have been broken
at some point in time, inspected each desk slowly. When
he arrived at our desk, Cheeni and I stood straight
while trying to put on a winning smile. The results
were announced a few hours later. We got second place
because some brainy ant computer jock had made a desk
out of a computer and attached automatic iTunes to it.
But still, I was the winner in the eyes of the cool beetles,
wasps, ants, sparrows, parrots and macaws who helped
me.
Later, as usual, we had to say goodbye. I almost cried
like a baby, that day! Cheeni bid a silent farewell and
entered her home on Antsfort Avenue in the Desk of
Dazzlement and Daintiness. She still visits me every now
and then, and we take crazy selfies and have some fun
during those special moments. Who knows? You might
be the next one to find yourself talking to an ant!
y
7
A ‘Tail’ of Laddoos
T
anya tiptoed past the open room from which you could
hear a loud, piggy snore coming from underneath
the sheets. She crept all the way to the newly refurbished
kitchen, that smelt of new paint and chocolate, but that
was not what she was so interested in. Her chocolate
brown eyes darted here and there before proceeding to the
refrigerator at the other end of the room.
She couldn’t stop thinking about them, those
heavenly laddoos [Indian sweet balls]. Of course, Amma
had allowed her and her brother, only one, saving the
remaining two to take to school the following day. But
how could anyone resist going back to those delicious
round balls of goodness? Oh, just thinking about the sweet
juicy taste made her mouth water. She slowly opened the
refrigerator as quietly as she could and groped for the
right box in the dark. Aha! She pulled out a small box
with only two small, round balls inside it and carefully
opened it before putting her hand in and grasping one
of them. Tanya quickly put everything back in its proper
place so that the kitchen looked untouched and ran back
to her room to enjoy her newly looted bounty.
The next morning, little Tanya woke up with a
satisfied smile on her face before getting ready in her
usual hurried manner and headed down to the kitchen,
which now smelt like her father’s morning coffee. Her
9 Chocolatey Bites
mother smiled at her, before quickly turning around
to save a Roti [soft flat bread] that was cooking on the
stove, from burning. Mrs. Geetha, oblivious of the midnight raid that had taken place, turned off the stove and
packed their lunches in two steel, rectangle boxes. She
took out two smaller, circular boxes to pack the laddoos.
She opened the laddoo box from the refrigerator. She
stared, and stared, and stared, before looking up with a
mix of suspicion and shock on her face.
“Amar, where are the laddoos I had kept for you
both?” she turned towards Tanya’s poor elder brother,
who had his nose buried in his chemistry textbook,
feverishly tearing a piece of Roti and popping it into his
mouth before turning to the next page.
“Amar!” he looked up with an annoyed look on his
face.
“Where. Is. Your. Laddoo?” she slowly prodded him
on. He gazed at her with a puzzled look.
“I didn’t take it! I wanted to have it for school!” he
cried indignantly before glancing at Tanya and slowly a
sly grin spread across his face.
“I’m sure Tanya didn’t take it,” bewildered Tanya
shook her head vigorously, wondering why her brother
wasn’t making a big fuss.
“I foretell that whoever ate my laddoo will sprout a
long, bushy tail by tomorrow morning,” he deemed, a
mischievous look crossing his face, before looking into
his textbook again.
Tanya was shivering when she got into her father’s
car, and this time, it wasn’t because of the chilly weather.
10
A ‘Tail’ of Laddoos
The cold winds ripped past her pale face as she stared out
the window, her heart was thumping so loudly that she
could hear it, her mind was muddled. What did Amar
mean? Would the tail really be there tomorrow? How
could she go to school? How would her uniform cover it
up? Would it actually happen? If it did, would she have
to go around with a furry tail forever? She pondered over
each and every one of those questions until a loud honk
awoke her from her confused thoughts. School wasn’t
any better than normal. Sheila had forced her to swap
her beloved rice and curry for watery dhal and roti. Her
two best friends were fighting again and were barely
on speaking terms. To top that off, she had forgotten to
bring her English notebook and didn’t finish her math
homework, which got her into a load of trouble. She
came back home with a sullen look on her face, quickly
finished her homework and dinner before retreating to
her room to read a book. That night was a worrisome
night for her, and she bundled herself under her covers
while clutching her bottom to check if there actually was
a tail growing.
The next morning, she woke up and felt her back
with her quivering hands and sighed assuredly before
heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She grinned
at herself for being silly and picked up her toothbrush
to squeeze out some toothpaste from a large tube when
she felt something prickly brushing against her back. She
frowned before turning around to see what it was in the
mirror.
She screamed as loud as she could. It was a tail, a
thick bushy tail attached to her behind. She quickly took
11
9 Chocolatey Bites
a shower and got her spotless uniform out from the
cupboard, wondering how she was going to hide this
humongous, hairy tail attached to her.
Nervous Tanya squirmed at the breakfast table
because of the big bushy thing concealed underneath her
white skirt and was relieved when she found out that she
had to walk to school as her father had left early for an
important conference. She quickly walked all the way to
school and sat down at her desk. School was worse than
the day before. Poor Tanya was made to stand outside
because she kept wriggling in her seat. And she had left
her lunch bag at home so she sat under the big mango
tree, trying to reach one of the ripe mangoes dangling
above her, by jumping up and down until she tripped and
grazed her knee. She sat down in defeat to find a hundred
pair of eyes staring at her. She groaned, “Oh no!” She felt
her back to find that the bushy tail had popped out of her
skirt, the stares dissolved into giggles and guffaws. Tanya
nervously stared at her feet and put her head in her hands
before ashamedly running to hide behind the tree.
12
A ‘Tail’ of Laddoos
She came back home with sunken eyes and her face,
sallow and weepy. Tanya resignedly jumped into bed
and buried herself under the blanket until she heard the
distinct ring of the red alarm clock on her bedside table.
She jerked herself up and looked around her familiar
room. She was drenched in sweat, panting and finally
Tanya screamed very loudly. In a split second, her mother,
father, and brother ran into the room with anxious looks
on their faces. Mrs. Geetha ran to her side and stroked her
sweaty forehead gently.
“What happened, Tanya? Did you have a nightmare?”
her mother asked softly.
“Laddoo…Tail…School…Amar…Magic…
Laddoo…Tail,” she gasped. Of course, her family
couldn’t make head or tail of this, and they stared at her.
“Does this have anything to do with what I said
yesterday?” Amar questioned with caution.
“You…you said I would grow a tail if I was the
one who ate your laddoo, and I did!” she wailed in her
mother’s arms as her father glared at a, now, sheepish
Amar who was edging out of the room.
“Oh, Tanya. It must have been a dream, darling,” her
father patted her reassuringly before shooting another
glare at Amar who grimaced.
“It was?” she repeated slowly.
“Of course, it would have been, Tanya. Trust me.
You are never going to sprout a tail because you ate a
laddoo,” her mother smiled calmingly at her before
13
9 Chocolatey Bites
getting up and dragging poor Amar out the room with a
dangerous look on her face.
Tanya slowly smiled at her silliness and headed
to the bathroom to get ready for school. She squeezed
the toothpaste and started brushing her teeth before
feeling something furry attached to her back. And then,
she screamed louder than you would dare to imagine.
AAAH!
y
14
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