Manu learns to respect books

Manu puffed the pillow on the bed and sprawling on it, picked up his story book. He loved reading. In fact, he loved it so much, that he ...

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Manu puffed the pillow on the bed and sprawling on it, picked up his story book. He loved reading. In fact, he loved it so much, that he had no other interests. Mother was always trying to get him to go out and play, or meet his friends, or take up some hobby. But with no success – because Manu had only one hobby and that was reading.

After he had finished reading his story book, he tossed it aside. There were other books lying on the bed; he picked up one and flipped through the pages quickly. Once this was over, he again threw it in the air. It fell on the floor, but Manu did not bother.

Soon mother called him to the dining table for lunch. Manu went to the table carrying his comic book. Throughout the meal, his eyes were glued on the comic. Daal and vegetables kept dripping on the pages of the comic. Mother told him to be careful, but he, as usual, did not listen.

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Later Manu opened his school bag to do his homework. All his text books were in bad shape. Either the front sheet had come off, or some pages had been torn. No book was properly covered with brown paper or labelled. the notebooks were full of scribbles and scratches, and of course the teacher had written`Be neat’ all over.

After finishing his homework Manu carelessly threw the books in the already huge pile on the floor. And when Nikki, the dog, came running into the room, she slammed into this pile, thus spreading them all over the floor. Mother was truly fed up. “Manu, you must handle your books properly and take care of them,” she said.

But Manu felt that if onebook got spoiled, he could always buy another. One day, when Manu was preparing for his weekly test, he could not find either his note book or his text book. He searched through the mess in the room, throwing books in the air. Then he found that not only was his school book missing, but also his favourite Tintin comics. He went wild, but could not find them at all. He started crying and went to his mother. But she carelessly said, “Oh, those books? Since they were lying on the floor for so many days, the cleaning woman took them and sold them for raddi.” After that day, Manu learnt to keep his books carefully.