July 10, 2004

Once upon a time there lived two sisters. The elder one was tall and slim with black hair. She was three and her name was Amna. The younger one, a bit chubby with golden brown curls was Amrah. She was just a year old.

Although Amna was a friendly child and her cute charming face would light up when she met some one, quite often she would get irritated when Amrah, the little one touched her toys.

Amrah had discovered Amna’s basket of toys pushed under a bed during her regular crawling excursions. She had chuckled to herself as she took out all the toys with amusement and played with them. The doll in the pink dress with golden hair, the bear with a drum... everything she found in that blue basket, her exploration of the day, fascinated her. From that day, she developed a liking for Amna’s toys.

“Why does she want to play with my toys?” Amna would babble a bit furiously whenever Amrah came crawling towards her basket of toys. Amna, if she saw there was no one around, would sometimes hit Amrah. Amrah was too little to talk and she would react by crying out loud.

Don’t you think it was rather rude of Amna to hit her baby sister, who had no one else to play with? Their parents knew how Amna felt when she would see her toys in Amrah’s hands. They wished Amna would share toys with Amrah and play amicably with her. So they thought of a plan.

One night while mama was putting Amna to sleep, she told her a story. It was about a sweet girl who would get a surprise gift from angels everytime she shared any of her things like candies or toys with others, specially with her younger siblings. Amna loved that story, particularly the thought of getting surprise gifts like chocolates, etc. from angels.

The next day, Amna remembered the story and the thought, put in her mind by her mama as to how she could attract angels to herself. Suddenly an idea hit her mind.

“Toys! Yes I can let Amrah play with them. She is my choti sister and this will make angels happy and I will get candies and chocolates in return,” the little girl thought with amusement. The next moment, she had placed her basket of toys in front of Amrah. Amrah giggled, and smiled innocently at her elder sister.

While Amrah played, Amna went to the window to see if some angel was coming with a packet of goodies for her. But there was no one. She pulled up a long face and went to her room where Amrah was still busy with the toys. “She cannot make angels come to me. Maybe I should take my toys back,” she thought.

But before she could actually do that mama entered the room and called out to Amna. “Someone was just on the door. Maybe it was the angel you were waiting for. See what it has brought,” mama handed her a colourful little bag. Just by looking at Amna’s expression, mama knew her trick had worked.

Amna’s face beamed with happiness as she opened the bag and found lots of sweets. “They were here, they saw Amrah playing with my toys and knew I was sharing them with her,” her imagination started to work. She sheepishly smiled as she helped herself to mouth-watering chocolates.

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)