A tale of 2 kiddies

Once upon a time (exactly a few months ago), a little girl called M would come to the English school to learn Eigo. Surprisingly mature for a 3 year old, she would not be able to part from her Mother without shedding a lot of tears - even if she knew Mama was hiding behind the car parked in front of the mall across the street from the school, peeking every few minutes to check if her daughter was okay (which made things worse!). When Ruriko Teacher, the school head, would take the little girl to the kitchen for a pep talk, the girl would confess amidst sobs - 'I know I shouldn't cry - but I just can't stop!'

When Divya Teacher joined, she knew nothing about this almost habitual daily routine and once, while trying every trick in her head to keep little M from crying, she spotted the elusive Mama peeping over the car, tried to wave her in with - 'Hey! Come on in - your daughter's crying!' Apparently, that was not expected of her - so Divya Teacher resigned herself to trying to cheer up the little munchkin for the rest of the long hour.

As the tale goes, a little 3 year old boy called Y joined the class the next week - and he found himself seated next to a sniffing M whom nobody seemed to care about (the teachers having to taken to 'ignore-and-maybe-she-will-stop-crying' policy). Sympathetically, he held her hand in his and once in a while comforted her with 'Daijobu, yo - Mama tsugu kuruyo!' ('It's OK - Mama will come soon!') and slowly M began to smile and learn - like all the other kids around her.

From that class on, they were the two inseperables - and where one was, the other could be found. When she cried, he held her hand and the teachers never seemed to hear them speaking in 'forbidden Japanese' at these times.

Divya Teacher likes to think the crowning moment of this tale came one day when threatened by tears, little M sat nervously holding Y's hands. All the other kids were trying to answer Ruriko Teacher's questions by volunteering 'I want to try!'. Y had a go at one of the questions, finished his turn - and looked like he was suddenly struck by a thought. He turned to M and asked her in Japanese 'Don't you want to try?' and she nodded her head faintly. For the next question, he lifted up her hand which he was holding and started shouting 'She wants to try!!'

From that day on - little M chan has had no trouble with composing herself in class. To this day, M and Y remain the best of friends. And the best part is, she seems to have learnt from her experience - and whenever there is a child crying in class and the teachers can't do anything about it, she walks over to the child, and holding the child's hand in hers, she says sweetly - 'Daijobu yo - Mama tsugu kuru yo!'

(P.S : It always works!!)