Innocent Conspirators

It was the hot summer of gujarat, mum-dad were out for shopping, and bhaiya and I were free to play as we willed. (We must have been very little, for all four of us easily used to fit on dad's bajaj ). We settled upon flying paper-planes. Bhaiya was good at making paper-planes. This time the paper-plane turned out to be world-class, if I may say so. We cheered the silly heights, smooth glides and erratic turns our paper-plane took.

But destiny can never see us happy, can she ?

As we were enjoying our little play oblivious of the sithering outdoors, tragedy struck. One of us (presumably I, for I was good at spoiling things) launched the plane with such perfection, that it rose 20 feet high (yes, the hall was quite big and spacious, government quarters you see, or may be it was just our littleness that exaggerated the heights) and landed perfectly on-to the tube-light. Now what ? How coulde we let our precious go ! So we decided upon a pencil sharpener (remember those steel ones) for our rescue mission. Now what happens when you throw a sharpener at a tube-light ( I think it was I who convinced bhaiya that it will work). The inevitable happened after two or three rescue missions. In one perfect dash, the sharpener struck the tube-light; the tube-light broke with a thundering sound, creating giant fears in our little hearts. Tube-light shocked, we quickly recovered. There was quite some time before mum-dad would be back from their excursion. We put our innocent minds at work, to come up with a believable reason for the disaster. And after a while, Eureka !
"Mummy ko bolenge, ki chidiya apna ghonsla bana rahi thi, aur usne tuble-light todi"
"Teri mummy nahin manegi"
"Arre manegi. Bus chidiya ne tuble-light todi. Theek hai"
"Theek hai"
Mum-dad came and ofcourse, mum asked about the tube-light.
"Kya hua, kisne kiya yeh, jaroor anshul ne kiya hoga" (She asked lightly. She must have been in a good mood, may be because she got to empty dad's pocket that day).

Tense moments.

"Nahin mummy, maine nahin kiya. Chidiya ne kiya. Bhaiya se poocho"
Bhaiya meekly nodded, a yes.
(Ofcourse we had cleared away our sharpener, got our plane back, and removed any traces of mis-doings that might have caused suspicion)Mummy laughed "Chidiya ne kaise kiya !"
"Mummy such main chidiya ne todi tube-light"
"Accha theek hai, tum log dusre kamre main khelo, yahan kaanch hai"
So mission impossible was successfully accomplished. We had got our plane back, and blames away from our backs. We gleefully (and thank-heartedly) retired to another room, enjoying our conspiracy to the fullest.

That was when bhaiya became one of my best friends, a memorable time.