A series of original short stories written by our student Ehsaas Agarwal.

Ehsass is 9 years old young writer from Hyderabad. We are proud to have him as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Ehsaas for this exemplary true self-expression.

Short Stories Collection #3- By Ehsaas Agarwal

1. “Fate of Tangy, The Lemon”

Imagine a beautiful farm with tons and tons of lemon plants, birds were chirping in joy to eat the seeds of the barn. The soil was as soft as a pillow. In the middle, the farmers had the biggest tree of lemon in the whole world. The taste of the lemon was very tangy!

On that tree, there lived a seed named Tangy. Tangy lived happily with his family. One day he overheard a conversation that struck him with fear. “I think we should sell all the singular seeds,” said one of the farmers. The next day Tangy was sent to the local farm shop. In the lorry, he was weeping. He missed his family. But he could not go back now. When he reached the shop, he felt sad but somewhat proud that he was now usable.

One day later, a gentle little boy named Ehsaas came to the shop and got very happy to see a new type of seed. He had a hobby of planting seeds. He took Tangy and planted him. At first, Tangy was nervous about getting sowed, but then he started to enjoy the soft soil and was getting used to it. After one month, a weird green thing started sticking out of his head. He felt uncomfortable and wanted to get rid of it. He tried to remove it but did not succeed. He called Ehsaas and asked, “What is this? I am not comfortable with this, please help me to remove it”. Ehsaas was surprised to see the stem coming out of Tangy and got delighted. He replied, “This is a stem! Tangy you’ve grown and soon you will become a full-fledged lemon plant. You will be able to bear fruits and flowers after a few days”. Hearing all this Tangy realized that his worth is going to increase a lot now and this made him feel elated.

15 days later, Ehsaas’s mom told him, “We are going to the Philippines next Wednesday for a vacation.” Ehsaas exclaimed “Yay”. The whole week Ehsaas was jumping with joy. He started preparing for his trip. He went to the market and bought funky sunglasses and a hat to carry to the beach. Then Wednesday arrived, and Ehsaas and his parents were ready to leave, just then Ehsaas remembered about his plants, and suddenly all his enthusiasm vanished. He went running to his mother “Mom, I don’t want to go. Who will take care of my plants for the next 15 days? All my plants will die. I can’t leave them. They are my friends. I have worked hard for them to grow well.”

His mother tried to convince him. She said, “let’s keep the plants in our neighbor’s home and request them to take care of our plants for 15 days”. Ehsaas denied it. He said, “I can’t trust anyone for my beloved friends.” His mother gave him many options, but Ehsaas simply refused to go on holiday. Finally, his mom got tired and gave up. Ultimately, they canceled the plan and stayed home.

One fine day, Ehsaas’s mom was cooking his favorite vegetable pasta. Meanwhile, Tangy had become a beautiful plant and started bearing flowers due to all the affection he received from Ehsaas every day. Ehsaas was having leisure in the garden among his plant friends. He saw a lemon on Tangy and plucked it. He rushed to the kitchen and squeezed a dash of his lemon into the pasta. The whole family ate that pasta.

Ehsaas didn’t know that the Tangy, the lemon tree, was a magical one. It possessed powers to bless. After a few days, due to the magic of lemons Tangy, his father became a wealthy man and started living a luxurious life. Ehsaas and his family continued to take care of Tangy always without knowing about its magical powers.

2. “The Jungle of Ghosts”

One day there lived a king named Champaklal. He was a brave and daring king. He was loved by all the people of his Kingdom. One day lots of wild animals mostly carnivorous and scavengers came into the kingdom of Champaklal. They attacked the fields and started eating all the cattle.

The king went to check up on these animals along with his soldiers. While searching they got lost in the forest. Soon it became dark, and the trees started moving without wind around. Some strange screaming sound was heard. Champaklal and his fellowmen started looking here and there. To their astonishment, it was all blank. They were petrified.

Suddenly they noticed one of their soldiers got missing. They started looking for him. One of them in between whispered: “Is he eaten by a carnivorous animal?”

Thunder followed by heavy rains begins. Making it all over more difficult for the king and his crew. One of the soldiers felt moving land beneath his feet, he asked his mates “Do you observe the mud sliding against our feet?”

Quickly they all paid attention and realized what their friend is saying correctly. They started running in the opposite direction. next moment the speed of sliding mud grew stronger, and they all started sweeping away.

Champaklal understood there is a ghost around us. He commanded his soldiers to run along with the sliding land. The land broke from between and all of them got buried inside it. Since then, no one goes into that jungle as everyone believes that ghosts live there.

3. “Attack of the spirit ship”

Once there was a village, it was said that it was peaceful and quiet. Its name was Sohanhalli.

Rajen, a young boy was playing. He lived in Gandhinagar, Gujrat. One day a news spread virally: Two explorers went to Sohanhalli for a month and did not come back. No one knew the reason. Rajen was keen to check it out and dragged his friends Arjun and Amit with him. On the way to the 15 day’s journey, he met a person running. Rajen ran to him and asked, “Where are you going?”

The boy replied, ” to save my father.”

“Where is your father?” asked Rajan.

“In Sohanhalli” the boy replied

“Would you like to join us?” Questioned Rajan

“Yes”, said the boy.

He introduced himself to everyone as Chintu.

The 4 kids embarked on their journey. Soon they saw a structure blocking their path. There was a sign highlighting, “open this chest”. They opened it, and to their utter amazement, they saw a floating map. It was a treasure map. RajEn grabbed it and the 4 friends followed it until the fourteenth day. They found the treasure.

“Wait a second, Its not in a chest” exclaimed Arjun.

“Yes!” said Rajan.

The map brought us straight to Sohanhalli. Everything was deserted. The friends roamed around for some time until it became dark. The sky was cloudless. Suddenly there was a lightning strike and came a ghost ship. The ghost on it shouted “deploy the attack of the spirit ship. Everyone’s blood froze. Rajen’ friends ran at a speed of light. Suddenly Rajen ran and jumped on board, threw the ghosts and fell off the board. Luckily his friends took him back safely. When he got healed, he jumped on board again, ripped a rope and saved the explorers. They came back home. From that day onwards Sohanhalli was banned. Rajen was always fearless.

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