Junior Vocab
The Imaginative Crayon
Anya: "Pass the yellow crayon, Kabir! I need it for the sun."
Kabir: "Wait, Anya! I’m using it for my cricket bat."
Anya: "But your bat is already yellow. See? So bright, like mango pickle."
Kabir:imagines the ball and hits it by itself." "I’m making another bat. A magic one. It
Anya: "Bats can’t think! They’re just wood."
Kabir: "In my drawing, they can. My bat imagines sixes flying over the neighbor’s terrace."
Anya: "Hmm. My sun just sits there. It doesn’t imagine anything."
Kabir: "Make it imagine! Your sun can imagine rainbows and ice-cream clouds."
Anya: "Ice-cream clouds would melt in Chennai heat."
Kabir: "So your sun imagines shade for everyone… and cold lemon juice for us."
Anya: "Now I’m imagining that. My tongue is already sour."
Kabir: "See? When your mouth imagines, it almost tastes it."
Anya: "Okay, my turn. I imagines—"
Kabir: "Not ‘I imagines’. Say ‘I imagine’."
Anya: "Fine. I imagine our drawings jumping out and dancing on the floor."
Kabir: "My bat would dance like in a Bollywood song."
Anya: "And my sun would spin like a giant jalebi."
Kabir: "Amma, look! Our paper is full of things that imagine stuff!"
Amma: "Mmm, and I imagine two artists who can share one yellow crayon."
Anya: "Okay, Amma. I’ll color half the sun, then Kabir can imagine the rest."
Kabir: "Deal. My magic bat imagines us both getting a big jalebi after homework."