As I flipped the pages, the fragile pages requested me to be gentle with them. The yellow pages are somewhat brittle; time spares no one, what a truth of life !!
The boy and the tortoise – kids were excited to hear the title. And I obediently start narrating them the story before they lose their patience.
Once upon a time, a boy was playing near his house. It was winter time and sun pleased everyone. Suddenly the boy saw a shiny shell. He picked it up, and realized it was a tortoise. But it was in its shell, and was not ready to come out of the shell.
The boy was very curious to see him, so he tried all the tricks with him, poked him with a stick, kept some fresh green leaves before him, a bucket of water. The tortoise would peep out a little but the moment he sees the boy, he would retract, as the boy would almost pounce on him.
Boy was finally out of his tricks, so started crying. Even the loud wailing didn’t melt tortoise’s heart. But on listening to his cries, his mother came out of the house and asked what happened. After listening to the boy, she quietly picked up the tortoise and took her near the fireplace and instructed the boy to sit quietly and watch. Since it was winters, the tortoise felt the warmth of fire and gradually came out of the shell. Since boy was watching it from a distance, he was amazed to see what he could not do after so many efforts; her mother did it without doing anything! He was puzzled, he looked quizzing at her.
She smiled and said “Give them the warmth and space and they will open up”
An old short and simple story, but very effective.
