Nani’s Snack Time

A Story by Aryahi (10-years-old)

Illustration by Divya Chandramoulli

Every summer break, my mom dropped me off at my Nani’s place. There, I met my cousins Niti, Mihi, and Ninu. We stayed in Nani’s house for 3 weeks. Niti, who was 10, was very studious and focused, and always got the best marks in class. Ninu, who was 9, was the opposite of Niti. He was very talkative, entertaining, and sometimes had to be told more than once to quiet down. Mihi, who was also 9, was a little quiet, but when we got her to talk, she talked about everything. Meanwhile I was very shy, but I still loved talking with my cousins. 

Mummy and Papa were talking with Nani and Nana, and we were sprawled on the bed, reading The Magic Treasure Hunt together, when my Nani called  “Children, your snack is ready. Come eat. I’ve made jalabis & laddus!”. We all loved snack time with our Nani, so I ran to the kitchen, when suddenly I saw….

Ninu trying to grab some extra laddus from the silver platter they were set on. “Ninu!”, I hissed, trying to get his attention. He turned around with his hands full of laddus.

“What?”, he said.

“Put down those laddus, or we won’t have any to eat for a snack!”, I said.

“Sorry Nima. But these are Niti’s laddus. She will never come to eat, and will be sitting down in her bedroom reading for ages like yesterday”, Ninu whispered.

He had a point. Yesterday, Niti had not come out for hours, and had skipped snack, playtime, and even most of dinner, until Nani came in the room and called her for dinner. I was about to ask him for some laddus, but at that moment, Niti and Mihi came in.

“Hey! Why are you taking my laddus?”, Niti exclaimed.

“Sorry Niti”, Ninu mumbled as he put them down on Niti’s platter.

Then Nani came in. “OK children, it is time to eat”, she smiled. 

I started munching on a jalebi, and I was thinking about the book we had just read. 

There had been 4 kids who had looked for treasure in an old house. Suddenly, I had an amazing idea. When we were driving to Nani’s place, I heard Mummy say that the house was old, and I had to watch out for rats and lizards. I decided to tell my cousins about my idea.

“Hey guys, what if we dig through the house for treasure just like the kids in The Magic Treasure Hunt did?”, I asked ecstatically.

“Yes! We should!!”, Ninu said.

He sounded very excited. “We might find treasure or gold, and we will become very rich!”

Ninu looked certain we would find treasure, but Niti didn’t look very sure.

“How are you so sure we will find treasure? We do not know how old this house is, nor do I think Nani will let us dig for treasure. The house in the book was over 300 years old, plus it was a fictional story. And all our mummas said watch out for rats and lizards. How are you so sure we will find treasure Nima?”, Niti finished.

“Let’s ask Nani how old the house is”, Mihi replied.

“Well, okay”, sighed Niti.

“But if there are lizards or rats, Ninu will clean them”, Nitu said.

“No! You will clean up!”, exclaimed Ninu.

While they bickered, Mihi and I asked Nani some questions. “Nani, how old is this house?”

“Well, this house has been inherited by 4 or 5 generations of our family”, said Nani. “So I’d guess it is about, 300 years old”, smiled Nani.

Mihi and I exchanged excited looks. We went over to tell Niti and Ninu the good news. “Niti, Ninu, the house is 300 years old!”, Mihi shouted excitedly.

“Awesome! There is treasure here! Niti, did you hear that? It is 300 years old!” Ninu could not contain his excitement.

Before Niti could stop him-or us-he sprinted to Nani’s room, and Mihi and I followed. Niti had no choice then, but to follow us. When we reached there, Ninu had a beach shovel, a wooden cane, a fake bamboo stick, and a spatula in his hand.

“There is a hole here, next to the bed. I think one of our ancestors buried some treasure here, but covered it up. And I found these around here,” Ninu said, holding up the beach shovel, the wooden cane, the fake bamboo stick, and the spatula.

He handed one of the objects to each of us. “Okay, crew. Start digging!”

He shouted like a general of an army telling us to attack the enemy. We dug for about ten minutes, when we had made a 6 inch hole.

Niti huffed, tired. “There is no gold, sliver, coins, or gems anywhere. Let’s stop digging.”

“No, I’m positive there is some gold!”, I cried.

We resumed digging. We decided to talk about what we would do with our gold. I decided we could give it to our Nani. Ninu agreed, except that he thought that Nani should spend the money on a lifetime’s supply of jalebis. Niti wanted to put some in our college accounts, and Mihi wanted to send half of it to charity. J

ust then, Mihi gasped. “Our hole is a meter long!”, she cried. “And there’s no gold!”

“I knew we wouldn’t find gold”, Niti huffed.

“Nani!”, I called. Nana and Nani came into the room.

“What happened here?”, Nana asked.

“We were trying to find treasure in the hole”, Ninu replied.

“You have made a big mess”, said Nana.

Then, Mummy and Papa rushed in. Mummy cried, “Nima, what happened here?!”

“We will pay for the hole Mummyji”, said Papa.

“Oh, it’s fine. Let kids be kids”, said Nani with a twinkle in her eye.

“Now, who is ready for some more laddus?”

In the end, maybe Nani’s laddus were the treasure we were looking for.

THE END