When Bu Aana Met Ammini

Blue, the elephant, impatiently paced up and down his room in Goa. He desperately wanted to go out and play. But Blue was asked to stay indoors because the pandemic was everywhere.

He had company. Pink, Green, and Orange were elephants almost his age and Muttu, the monkey, was always up to some prank.

Though they were all safe inside their Paper Boat Collective home, Blue kept looking out of the window with an occasional sigh. He missed the big world out there.

Ammini looked out of the window and sighed too. She was in Kochi, a place with backwaters and criss-crossing canals. The heavy rains made puddles all around her home and frogs jumped in and out croaking. But Ammini had no one to play with.

How lucky it was that one of the windows of the Paper Boat Collective home where Blue lived, opened to Ammini’s Amma’s laptop!

It was through that window that Blue saw Ammini first. She was sitting on her Amma’s lap and she jumped with joy when Blue peeped out through the laptop window.

“Bu Aana…” she clapped her hands, “Will you come and play with me?”

Blue was so excited and asked Pink, Green, and Orange what to do. The elephants put their heads together and stitched a nice face mask for Blue. Muttu fetched a bottle of sanitiser. Next morning, Blue was all set for his travel to Kochi!

Blue waved his trunk at this Paper Boat Collective play mates and hummed a song on the way to the railway station.

When Blue reached, he fell asleep listening to Ammini talking about her new friend Bu Aana. He dreamt of playing many games with her, of going around Kochi sight-seeing with her, of eating Puttu and Idlis with her and also, of taking her to Goa, one day to meet the elephants and the naughty monkey.

A story written by Prasanna Varma, a Paper Boat Collective customer, who bought Apu Elephant from our store for her niece, Kalindi aka Ammini.

Prasanna's writing touched our hearts. We hope it does the same to you.