Once upon a time, in Nitali and Nihir’s backyard lived a squirrel family. Both the kids were watching the antics of the squirrel while eating their breakfast of theplas. The squirrels are eating a breakfast of acorns and worms. After breakfast, the squirrel pups went off to play pakda pakdi [tag] and santa kukadi [hide and seek] in their play structure the “Vrksa”, also called the tree.
In the squirrel family, was a pup named “Khiskoli” aka Squirrel in Gujarati. Khiskoli, the curious one, was always seeking new experiences. That day Khiskoli wakes up she hears some sounds and she did not know what they were except that they came from “tyaa thi” or there.
Shee asked her mom “What is that sound?” Mom said ” Don’t know. My mom never told me and she said never to go there”
“Dad, what is that sound?”
Dad replied ” Don’t know beta [endearing way to say child]. My dad told me never to go there. And I do not want you to go there either”.
After breakfast, when her brothers and sisters are off to the vrksa, curious Khiskoli, asks all the friendly backyard creatures what the sound is.
Biladi aka the cat says “Meow, meow, I don’t know.” as did the doves ” Gutar Goo, Gutar Goo, we don’t know”, as did Madhmakhi, the bee, buzz, buzz flying away, and Kidi, the ant, crawling away fast.
Khiskoli feels disappointed. She is determined to figure it out. But what can she do? Her dad had asked her not to go there and she is not sure why not to go there.
Khiskoli thinks about it for a while and comes up with an idea. She can follow the sound and see what it is. But when would be the best time? Ah, right now, when it is her playtime on the vrksa.
And so, she quietly jumps on to the fence and starts creeping along the fence towards the sound, she checks behind her to make sure she will not be caught. She is feeling scared and excited at the same time because she has moved far from her home.
Nitali and Nihir watch Khiskoli creeping away from the vrksa. They are curious where she is going since they have never seen any squirrel go this far.
They decide to follow her at a distance but are afraid to scare her away.
Khiskoli is scared and keeps going. She is indeed brave. Many a time she stops and listens and looks and then starts moving forward. The melodious sounds are getting louder. The backyard friendly creatures are watching the trio.
Khiskoli gets closer and closer to the sound. It is a tinkling sound. What can it be?
Khiskoli is in two minds, to go home or to continue. As the musical, tinkling sounds beckon her towards them, she chooses to journey on.
She passes a swing and noticed the sound did not come from the jhulo aka swing.
She passes some chucklees aka sparrows, they were not making the sound.
She passes a tarankund aka pool of water, that was not making this sound.
She then passes some sweet smelling tamatar aka tomatoes, that was not making this tinkling sound either. So what was it?
Then her eyes fall upon something hanging from the roof, she moves closer to check and realizes that it was making the tinkling sounds, many small white, gray and black shapes suspended by a string that were clinging against each other as they danced to the rhythm of the breeze. This is what was making the beautiful tinkling sounds!
The wind stopped and so did the sounds. She went up to the hearts to move them. They started clanging without rhythm, she got scared and began to dash back.
Khiskoli kept on running as fast as her feet would carry her, past the tomato plant, the pool, the chucklees and the swing. She jumped on the fence and was back into the vrksa.
Her heart was beating fast and she was feeling scared and excited, both feelings at once.. Her mom was not around. Her brother and sisters asked her “Khiskoli, what happened?”. Khiskoli tells them ” I went on the other side of the house and saw where the tinkling sounds were coming from. It was quite an adventure”. Her sibs are amazed. They want to go and check as well.
Soon their mom calls them for snack time. They decide to wait till after snacks go check on the chimes.
Nitali and Nihir realized that the squirrel was exploring the backyard and was attracted to the chimes, they decided to sit there watching and listening to the chimes from Mumbai as well.
Life, a daily exploration 