{"id":567,"date":"2021-03-06T22:03:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T16:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=567"},"modified":"2021-03-06T22:14:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T16:44:52","slug":"the-dying-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2021\/03\/06\/the-dying-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dying Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

A boy named Haroon had been cycling all day. His school had closed for the summer vacation and he, along with his parents, had shifted to their countryside house.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The countryside house, not very far from their hometown, offered him much entertainment and there he did not spend his time playing video games. He had time to do all the activities he missed in the town.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The best attraction in the countryside was a pond close to their house. He had seen his father do fishing in it since he was a toddler.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When he returned home in the evening, he was hungry and tired. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMommy, can I have my dinner now? I am tired,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His mother quickly served him food. As he ate his food, his mother made the bed for him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After finishing his dinner, he got up and went up to his parents to hug them. He then quickly brushed his teeth and went to bed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Soon he was fast asleep. That night, he dreamt of the pond. The water was crystal clear. He saw sparkling creatures, starfish and fish shining like diamonds in the pond. He felt so happy in his dream.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the first rays of the sun woke him up the next day, Haroon immediately walked up to the pond only to realize that its water was murky and the pond had shrunk in size. It was nothing like what he had seen in the dream.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Seeing his son standing near the pond, his father joined him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened son? You look sad. Is everything alright?\u201d asked his father.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes Dad, I am fine. It\u2019s just that this pond used to be bigger in size and full of crystal clear water. When I was a toddler, I used to watch the fish in it. I had a great time when we did fishing here all day. Now I can hardly see any fish in it,\u201d he told his father.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Haroon was sad as the pond had lost its charm. The pond of his childhood had changed and that pained him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s father was also sad. He could not bear to see his son sad. So, he thought of a plan. Each day, he would collect garbage from the pond until it was clean. The pond was restored to its pristine glory and it gave much joy to the boy. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A boy named Haroon had been cycling all day. His school had closed for the summer vacation and he, along with his parents, had shifted to their countryside house. The countryside house, not very far from their hometown, offered him much entertainment and there he did not spend his time playing video games. He had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,94,86,12,11,8,92,93],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-children-stories","tag-future","tag-happiness","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-kashmir","tag-kids-stories","tag-resources","tag-save-environment","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}