Shreya’s life becomes dull ,as her only friend and angel ‘her dadi ‘ dies . She becomes lonely and pessimistic . Little does she know that her dadi’s teachings are with her and that her life ahead would be based on them . Read further to find out how Shreya copes with her dadi’s death and finds her way to happiness .

Her little, innocent eyes eagerly peeping out of the window pane were constantly glued to the road. There were many passersby- children returning from their school with their heavy bag packs, cows and buffaloes, stray dogs and many more but her eyes were waiting for no one except her mother who would return home, kiss her head and make her sleep in her lap. But Shreya had to accept the bitter truth that her mom would not return before evening and dad would be back by night.Her many friends, video games, dolls and toys did not give her the happiness that she longed for. All she wanted was love and care. While she was about to doze off lying on the window pane, she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, it was her grandmother. Her granny’s tender smile made her to forget everything and the little girl holding her grandmother’s hand went off for lunch

. Shreya’s mother would return tired from work and also managed household chores. So, she could hardly pay attention towards her little daughter .Every night Shreya would eagerly wait for her mom to sit with her so that she could tell her about each and everything that happened in school .But every time she went saying “Mom ,do you know what happened today?” she would get the same answer “ Sweetie, it’s getting late you better go to bed or you’ll be late for school tomorrow”.

Dad was too busy all day to sit with his daughter and listen to her stories .The most talkative girl in school was just a loner at home.

Everytime she felt lonely and was about to throw her hands and shout at the top of her voice, “Hey! I too exist in this world” an angel would come to rescue, “Her Dadi” .Each day Shreya was sent to school with her hair neatly tied up in a pony by her beloved granny. She sat in her van and waved her adieu until her smiling face would disappear in the morning dew. Shreya’s dadi was sixty or so with a wrinkled face, round glasses and big swollen eyes yet never had she lost her grace.

Saturday morning, Shreya woke up earlier than the other days, afterall she had to be snow white in today’s skit. She was delighted to wear her new white gown.Without wasting much time she woke her granny up. She was surprised to see Shreya awake so early. She asked, “Beta, how come you woke up so early?” Shreya replied, “Dadi you talk about getting up, I didn’t sleep last night. Have you forgotten that I have to play Snow White in today’s skit competition? Granny! I am so excited. You please dress me up quickly.”Dadi threw her caring smile through her long white locks falling on her face and instantly began to make her ready. After she was dressed up in the little white gown, her granny gave a gentle kiss on her cheeks. When she was fully dressed up, Shreya’s granny was awestruck by her little angel’s beauty. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she applied kajal at back of her ear to keep her protected from all evil eyes .Poor granny could only wish that her granddaughters’ parents were home to see their little pretty princess and were just not stuck with business trips. Shreya couldn’t understand why her dadi had those tears and a faint smile along. She gently touched her granny’s face and said, “ Dadi, we’re getting late. We have to hurry!” It seemed that her granny just came out of a beautiful short dream and immediately started to search for something in her antique almira  – a beautiful pearl pendant which she always used count as her lucky charm. She believed that it was because of  this pendant( given by her own mother when she was married to Shreya’s grandfather) that she was able to fight the most difficult situations in life.

By this, Shreya was emotionally struck, she wrapped her hands across her dadi’s neck and kissed her saying, “Dadi, I love you but I hate mom and dad. They just don’t have any time for me. Today when everyone’s parents would be there, I would be all by myself”. Old granny felt pity for that girl. She held her in her soft shivering hands and said, “Sweetie, your parents love you more than anyone or anything in this world! If today they’re working, they’re doing it for you to have a great future – Spending time of enjoyment into time of hard labour. You should feel proud that your parents are giving away their each and every moment to hard work so that you have a bright future.”  Listening to this, Shreya felt a little ashamed and guilty for the harsh words spoken by her against her parents and just then, her van honked. She rushed towards the van and waved dadi a goodbye.

“Dadi! Your lucky charm worked! We came first in our skit!” Shreya came giggling and shouting right through the veranda expecting her old granny sitting at the other end of it. She went running inside the living room but to her misery she could only see her parents crying and sobbing, tears dropping on the hard cold marbled floor. She ran towards them and could see nothing except for the corpse of her dadi wrapped in white robes. “What has happened to her, Mumma?”  Her eyes got blurred with tears, groaning and howling for the loss of her angel and making every single attempt to wake her lucky charm up, but she would not make even a tiny move.

Dadi’s body was taken and so was Shreya’s laughter. Her parents decided to shift to a different city. Her new house was big, her rooms window overlooked a busy street and she still awaited to see her mom but this time no comforting hand would rest onto her shoulder. There was no one to make her smile. .She was all alone at home and she almost cursed her parents for not being with her after such a big loss that she had suffered. She kept on thinking that is work more important for her parents than their daughter, can they not devote some quality time to her?

She desperately wanted to go back in time, hold her granny’s hands and be with her. She had tears in her eyes when she looked out of the window and saw a peculiar scene.

A little boy with a bag on his back crying, his mother was trying to console him but she too had tears in her eyes. Shreya tried to overhear their conversation and could figure that the boy was thrown out the school because his parents were not able to pay his school fees. Shreya pitied the boy and then for some reason she looked around her room that was full of all kind of amenities. She got up, looked at the mirror and noticed the pearl necklace that her dadi had given her. She recalled what her dadi had said that our parents work all day just to provide us with all comforts of life, they sacrifice their own comforts just to make our future bright.  Shreya at that very moment was filled with realization of the words spoken to her by her dadi. Her granny had passed away but her lucky charm was still with her and so were the beautiful memories of the past-Their moments of laughter, the sad times when her dadi made her smile ,those lonely moments when dadi’s comforting lap was like heaven and most of it, their memories of the old house.

Time passed by, the garden was filled with rejoicing voices as elderly people were practising their morning laughter. Ms. Shreya Roy , the best business woman of the year sat on the bench in that very garden where her old granny used to sit. Watching these old people with a smile, tears rolled down her eyes. She could recall all her childhood memories in an instant. Her beautiful old house had been converted into an old age home which was now filled with smiles, laughter and rejoicing cries. No one was lonely anymore. Shreya, whatever be the circumstances spared some time every month to pay a visit to the happiest place on earth, her old house. Her parents now retired used to live with her all day long. Theirs was a small but happy family. Shreya kissed her lucky charm that she wore around her neck, gazed at the sky and thanked God for everything, especially the angel who was in her life for a short period of eleven years but taught her every lesson of life.