“Are we really boring you that much?”
She lifted her head slightly to acknowledge Amma’s rhetorical question. Thankfully, her parents did not have an elaborate list of rules for the dining table. While they sometimes threatened to expand the “no screens” rule to “no reading of any kind”, she knew they were only half serious.
She thanked Amma for making her favourite dish – fish curry in yellow coconut gravy with green mangoes, to make it sour. Amma had used a fish fillet, so there were no bones to worry about! Then, Avisha went right back to reading.
“At this rate, you will finish this book tomorrow itself,” said Amma.
Avisha wanted to finish it before she went to sleep.
Dear Aparna Ma’am,
I hope this email finds you well. I Googled about you when looking for your email ID. I found out that you are one year younger than my Ammachi. My Ammachi is always complaining about back pain. She finds it tough to climb stairs too. So, I am assuming that you might actually not be very well. I hope this email does not find you too sick.
I learned about your book The House Behind the Mango Tree because my English teacher, Geetha Ma’am, gave us a summer vacation reading list. Teachers at my school keep saying that we do not read enough. I read 74 storybooks last year. I like updating those around me about the number of books I have read. And from the responses I usually get, I think that is a lot of books for someone eleven-years-and-seven-months-old.
We have to write a letter to the author of any of the books on the reading list. We are not expected to really write to an author, but just following the letter-writing format we are taught and write the letter in our notebook for Geetha Ma’am to correct. I thought that was boring, and your email id was surprisingly easy to find.
I finished your book in six hours. I guess I could say that your book is “unputdownable” but not in a good way. There were many things I did not like about the book. An aunty I like told me she loved the book, so I kept reading, hoping it would get better, but it did not.
The two things I really dislike about the story (Amma says “hate” is a strong word, and I must not use it lightly):
Why did Akka agree to marry someone who told her that it would be better if she became a teacher? Why should she be a teacher if she wanted to be a journalist?
I did not like how Lakshmi acted in so many situations. Why is she trying so hard for Paati to say nice things to her? Why can’t she see that her Paati is a horrible person? My Ammachi would never make me quit playing football (actually, that’s not a good example because I really don’t enjoy any sports, but she would never make me leave something I loved).
If Amma or Appa saw this email, they would not let me send it. They would say I was nasty to someone I had never met. But I am furious about parts of the story, and I thought you should know. I also find it difficult to keep something I feel a lot to myself.
This is my first-ever letter to an author. Actually, I wrote another one earlier today but found out that I can’t send it to him (the exact reason why is not important). I have not given any information about myself because I do not know what kind of person you are. Last year, I created my email ID in a way that nobody can guess my name or where I live. I have done a four-week course on cyber safety, so I know these things.
Hoping to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Excerpted with permission from Dear Author, You Are Wrong, Varsha Varghese, Scholastic India.
