Your reality could be my fantasy...

We were all very silly and young and had a million dreams and even more wishes wants and fantasies. In class 11 is when u start looking at the world around you. By now you start forming your dreams , wish , fantasies, etc. In school we had this trainee teacher who was really sweet and came to our class when another teacher was off or busy with something else.

In one of her "classes" with us she told us all to do a "fun" thing. She asked us all to right down our biggest and wildest fantasies on a sheet of paper and told us not to write our names. In the end she would read out the funniest or the wildest ones so we could all have a good laugh.

So everyone sat down and pened their fantasies down. I remember that day so well , I remember the look on all the faces, the glitter in their eyes the sheer happiness of just penning this down. Everybody was so excited , it felt like a passport to Fantasy Land !

We finished and went for a break. In the break as expected the excitement sored to wonderous heights and everyone was discussing their fantasies with each other. Some were acting all secretive about it and felt that what they had written was really silly and wished they had thought a little more.

Anyway , we carried the noise back to class and were so anxious to hear what the others had written and to see if our fantasies were read out and appreciated.

The reading began and we all laughed. The room was full of smiles , chuckels , glittering eyes , embarassment for some, loads of roaring laughter. The fantasies were the usual ones that kids that age had... runaway holidays, handsome men, lots of money , yes chocolate houses had to feature! the works .....!!!

As she pulled out the last one she had this look on her face which none of us understood then but were soon going to find out why she had that expression. She read story of a girl whose fantasy was to have a "Happy Family", to have a meal with both her parents on the dining table , to be dropped to school by her mom to live in a world where there was no fighting no drinking no crying. To sleep without the fear that maybe just maybe tomorrow will be a better day when she didn't have to protect her little sister from the ugly scenes. To wake up in the morning and realise that she belonged to a home , a family. She wrote, "part of my fantasy is to lead the life of a child. To want chocolates and ice- creams and good clothes and to walk to park with both mamma and papa......"

We were moved by this story a great deal. Ma'am was in tears and so were all of us. We didnt have a way of knowing who among us it was, but my calssmates said we all siltently prayed for her , prayed that her fantasy would turn to reality..... So did I. I prayed , very very hard.