The Penitent Sardar

      Written by: Nasratullah Samim

Sardar and Emal were two brothers. Lema was their sister. They were living in a green village far from the city. One day while Emal and Lema were playing in the lane, Sardar came and said that his father has bought a toy truck for all of them. They went home. Sardar took a small plastic shovel, loaded pebble into the truck and transferred it to the other side of the yard. When Sardar came back to load the truck again, Lema asked him to give the truck to her and Emal but Sardar did not want to share the truck with them. Emal wanted to take the truck by force but their mother came and said to Sardar that their father could not buy more toys for them and they have to play together with the truck.

Next day, Emal’s cousin, Kamran came to their house and they welcomed him. Emal showed their new toy truck to Kamran and said that their father has brought it for them. Kamran saw a bicycle in the yard and he asked about it. Emal said that their father had bought the bicycle for them a few months ago. Kamran took the bicycle and rode on it. Meanwhile, Sardar came and took the bicycle from Kamran. Emal asked Sardar to let Kamran ride the bicycle for a few minutes but Sardar did not accept.

Emal took his ball and asked Kamran to play volleyball with him. When they were playing, Sardar came and he asked Emal to pass the ball to him but Emal refused and asked him to play with his bicycle. Sardar became angry, he took a nail and punctured the ball. A quarrel took place between them. Their mother came and reconciled them. Sardar was quarreling with other boys too and no one was ready to play with him.

One day, Sadar went out from home and he saw that Jamil and Amin were playing with marbles. He asked them to share him in the play but they refused and said that Sardar always quarrels. Sardar became upset and went back home. He saw that Lema is playing Hopscotch in the yard. He asked her to play with him. Lema accepted. Sardar passed his turn but he did not let Lema to play her turn. Lema became sad and left Sardar alone. Sardar also became sad because no one was ready to play with him. Meanwhile, a cat with her four kittens was going on the way. Sardar saw that a kitten was holding another kitten’s tail. Sardar was waiting to watch their fight but he saw that they were playing with each other.

Sardar regretted his actions and went to his friends and he asked their apology and promised that he would never quarrel anymore with anyone.