{"id":783,"date":"2022-03-13T11:13:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T05:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=783"},"modified":"2025-10-24T10:26:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:56:01","slug":"karim-priya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2022\/03\/13\/karim-priya\/","title":{"rendered":"Karim & Priya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karim was scared.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want to leave his father\u2019s side, with so many strange faces around at the train station.<\/p>\n

The March sky was overcast; the weather windy.<\/p>\n

Karim was kept warm by his red and green chequered hoodie.<\/p>\n

His father wanted him to play, but Karim just would not step away.<\/p>\n

Priya walked in, in her pink dress, holding her father\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She was as old as Karim.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t seem to mind the strangers.<\/p>\n

She smiled at Karim. Her father saw that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can play with him if you want,\u201d he said, walking to stand beside Karim and his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Karim walked towards her. Their fathers saw the two four-year-olds getting ready to play together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is your name?\u201d asked Priya.<\/p>\n

\u201cKarim. What is your name?\u201d replied Karim.<\/p>\n

\u201cPriya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priya led Karim to a broken bench underneath the overhead bridge at the station.<\/p>\n

The bench wasn\u2019t fit for adults, but the two of them could squeeze themselves over its unbroken edge.<\/p>\n

Tilted as the bench was, Priya and Karim slid down and fell on the ground one over the other.<\/p>\n

They both laughed aloud.<\/p>\n

They knew what to do next: use the broken bench as a slide.<\/p>\n

Karim\u2019s father could not believe his son not minding the strangers anymore.<\/p>\n

The train arrived.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Karim\u2019s father went to get Karim.<\/p>\n

\u201cBye,\u201d Karim told Priya.<\/p>\n

He boarded the train with his father. Priya was looking at them through the window.<\/p>\n

They waved at each other, as the train began to move.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karim was scared.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want to leave his father\u2019s side, with so many strange faces around at the train station. The March sky was overcast; the weather windy. Karim was kept warm by his red and green chequered hoodie. His father wanted him to play, but Karim just would not step away. Priya walked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,9,13,12,173,8,140,288,289,211],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-amusing","tag-children-stories","tag-fairytales","tag-inspiring-tales","tag-karim","tag-kids-stories","tag-play","tag-priya","tag-slide","tag-train","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783"}],"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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}