A Blessing in Disguise

Friends, this is a light-hearted story for children. Thanks

Dear children, welcome.
Let me tell you today the story of Neeraj, the seven-year-old kid living in Delhi. It was the year 2020, and he was locked inside his home on account of the COVID-19 lockdown.
For the first few days, he was happy as he was freed from the burden of studies. It was a relief. Yes, though he was a child studying in class 2, the academic requirements of his school were quite demanding. Hence, the freedom from this unnatural pressure at that tender age was so gladdening!
However, within a few days, he started fretting about the idle time on hand. It was at this juncture that his mother, Nikita, hit upon a novel idea. She felt this was an excellent time for picking up a good hobby for her son.
Now, it so happened that Nikita was an active gardener, and though she was living in a third-floor flat, she had built up a nice garden on her balcony. Plus, there were so many indoor plants inside her house as well and thanks to the permission granted by her housing society, she was in the process of creating a small garden on her twelfth-floor terrace as well.
The colourful splashes of perennial flowering plants such as Bougainvillea and Ixora lit up her garden round the year. And with the change of seasons, its beauty used to get brightened many folds with blooms of seasonal flowers as well.
Neeraj had grown up with the flowers in a manner of speaking, and so he loved them so much. Alas, there was one thing that used to trouble him, and that was the fact that no flower used to last for long: some were short-lived (such as Hibiscus) and others were long-lived (such as Bougainvillea), but alas, ultimately, every flower used to fall to the ground.
Neeraj wished that the flowers would always stay there so that he could appreciate them every day, and he had often expressed his longing to his mother. Nikita, too, wished she could do something for her son: she wanted him to always be in a cheery mood.
And so, in a God-sent opportunity, Nikita one day saw a video for learning the basics of pencil drawing in her YouTube feed. As far as she was concerned, she had never entered those search words, but then YouTube algorithm works in mysterious ways, indeed!
She called her son and said, “Here is the answer to your prayer, dear. You can learn to draw the sketches of flowers you love and paint them in colours of your choice. Then those flowers will become yours. They will always stay with you, and you can look at them as often as you wish.”
The kid was uncertain, but trusting mom, he decided to give it a try anyway. That lockdown period proved to be a golden opportunity to fulfil his quest. For now, he could learn drawing and painting and practise them in continuation every day.
Soon, he came to acquire a reasonable grasp on the art and in a wonder of wonders, he was happy. Because now he was producing a painted flower that was going to stay with him for ages.
Aha! Our Neeraj was an artist now! And this gift was going to stay with him all through his life.
The lockdown period, thus, proved to be a most wonderful blessing for the child.
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