Akshat Tiwari, Class X B
Stephen walked fast. It was getting dark. He then realized that he had lost his way. He had no option but to look for a place to spend the night. But there was not a single human in sight. He shivered at the thought of spending the night alone in the jungle.
His thoughts were interrupted by a flicker of light at a distance. He moved closer and saw mad Bhuria. The villagers told scary stories about him and never went near him. Suddenly, it started raining heavily. Stephen, without pausing to think about the consequences of his action, went into mad Bhuria’s hut. He grew terrified as mad Bhuria followed him into the hut.
They stood facing each other. Mad Bhuria smiled at him and said, ‘Don’t be afraid. You can spend the night here with me. You will be safe.’
Bhuria offered Stephen milk and bread which he accepted readily. They spent the night talking and Stephen learnt the tragic story of Bhuria. He understood how the villagers had formed misconceptions about this harmless man.
The next morning, as he walked back towards his village, Stephen thought that it was the villagers who were crazy to think of Bhuria as a mad man because he wore old and tattered clothes.
We live in a world where appearances are the glasses through which others perceive us, he thought as he tried to save his clothes from the mud on the ground.
