She tore up the sheet of paper into tiny pieces, tossed it into the bin and paced the floor impatiently. From mild impatience, Swetha's mood had swung to hot anger. When the whole wide world looked forward to the new year with joy and anticipation, why did their family have to suffer such unhappiness? She stormed out of the room and into the kitchen, mumbling to her self that Mama's terrible idea of writing down 5 new year resolutions every year was a form of cruelty to children.

While looking for food in the fridge, she heard noises in her room and rushed back to find her brother, Ravi foraging for something in her waste paper bin. "What ARE you doing?" she demanded, suspiciously. Ravi tried to hide what he was up to but Swetha saw that he was reassembling the torn pieces of the paper she'd thrown away a little while ago. But since she'd shredded it so thoroughly, the poor chap was having a tough time! She burst out laughing, wickedly, "So, poor Ravi can't think up his own new year resolutions and is trying to copy mine! Aah ha!"

'Akka, why don't you just think of ten resolutions and loan me five, in exchange for me doing your biology drawings" Ravi pleaded, now that he'd been caught. "Anyway, if you've torn and thrown away a list of resolutions…then it's technically no longer yours, so I can use them, can't I?

Swetha plonked herself on the bed," Sure you can, but try figuring out what I had written first!" she laughed happily, quite certain Ravi could never put together the jig-saw of her torn letter. "Besides, you already have to do my biology drawings in exchange for me teaching you Simple Interest last week!"

Ravi sighed, thinking aloud, "Why does Mama have to be this type who gets crazy ideas about new years…all my friends are…" he suddenly perked up, "Akka, how about if I give you one bar of roasted almond chocolate that Rani Aunty gave me."

Swetha thought about it for a minute, "But you have 3 left, I remember, so make it two bars for 5 resolutions."

'One and a half?" Ravi suggested. "No, two full, and I want a 50 per cent advance!"

Reluctantly Ravi went and ferreted out one slab of his chocolate hoard and handed it to his sister. He hated parting with it and so her resolutions better be good. She immediately opened the slab of chocolate, took a big bite out of it and disappeared into her room.

She soon emerged with a folded sheet of paper that she handed to him, her mouth full of chocolate. Ravi opened the sheet and read through the list of 5 resolutions…they all seemed to conform to Mama's rules of only writing what you think you can do; not repeating last year's resolutions and no vague stuff like 'I'll be a better person."

Within seconds, he'd dashed off to his room, copied out the famous resolutions in her own handwriting, left the folded sheet on Mama's desk and run off to play, thrilled that this annual headache was over and done with.

When he came later, Ravi received two shocks…first, his hoard of chocolates had vanished; and second, there was a note from Mama on his desk. It read, "Ravi, dearest. Why have you given me Swetha's new year resolutions written for last year? No. 4 says, "I will complete knitting the sweater I started." So how did you plan to do that…since you can't even knit?!"

Fuming, Ravi sat down at his desk…Akka had somehow got the better of him again. After struggling with these silly resolutions for days, suddenly 5 original ones all popped into his head, and he wrote them out in fury. His list read.

" New Year resolutions of Ravi Raman, Aged 10.  1. I will learn not to depend on an older sister. 2. I WILL never give an advance for a job that has to be done. 3. I will always properly check the quality of what I buy .4. I will stop hoarding chocolates and 5. I will finish writing out my new year resolutions in October every year, so it doesn't spoil my new year."

Poor Ravi had learnt a lot of lessons this new year! Mama smiled when she read the resolutions…maybe when Swetha's list came in, Mama would be able to figure out what happened between the two!