Sandhya and Rohit sang away lustily, proud of their own invention - their heads bobbing to the tune. From the past six months they had dreamed of nothing but this - jumping and playing in the salty water, building wonderful sandcastles…and now that their holidays were finally here, they were actually on their way to Mahabalipuram!!!
"To the see, we flee, we flee…" "Stop!!", roared their father whose patience had worn thin after hearing the tune repeated for 98 times without a break. When he saw their downcast faces in the mirror, he quickly added - "look around and see if you can smell the sea yet.", whereupon they both started sniffing enthusiastically, forgetting the song. They were still about a 100 miles from the sea and his wife raised an eyebrow. He just grinned, and hummed the very same tune under his breath.
They soon reached the resort. On their way to lunch, they passed small shops that sold shells, beautiful idols of Gods, and….. "Mummy, wait!! Come back here, look at this", shouted Rohit, pointing to a shop window. "It's a metal detector!!! Can't I pleeeeeeeease buy it?? I'm sure I'll find some great gold coins with it!!!!". "Gold coins?? Pah!! You'll find some bottle caps, more likely. Forget it, bro", sneered Sandhya looking in an older-sisterly fashion at the rusty metal detector. Rohit's 8-year old eyes immediately filled with tears, and though he tried to blink them away, the kindly shop owner saw them. "Take it my son, take it. This will definitely make you famous.", and with a hearty pat on his shoulder he scuttled away into a side room.
"Ha-haaaaa….he said it'll make me famous!! Yipeeee!!".
They soon reached the sea. "Now kids", said their father, planting a huge red umbrella in the sand, "your mother and I are going for a snooze. NO going into the water till we wake up. Am I clear?" Sandhya looked a bit mutinous, since she had been looking forward to leaping into the water, but Rohit happily ran off, eager to try the new detector.
As soon as he brought it near the sand, there were a series of joyful beeps!! In great excitement, Rohit quickly started to dig, only to find bottlecaps - blast everyone's hide !! Sandhya, who was collecting shells nearby, saw this and started giggling loudly. Before she could make one of her wisecracks, Rohit stuck his tongue out at her, and ran further down the beach. The next hour was certainly hard work but there was no sign or sight of any prehistoric gold ornaments. "Even a jeweled dagger would do", he thought glumly to himself, glaring at the detector. Suddenly, the detector started beeping - and this time it seemed much louder. With renewed hope he started removing buckets of sand. He saw some metal emerging - but further wild digging revealed only some scraps of a car… how disgusting!
"I'm tired of this stupid detector. Sandhya was right, that shop-owner was loony - suggesting that I would become famous! Anyways …why should I waste all this sand? I'll try and build a fort like Calvin's and Hobbes's - only this will be of sand, instead of snow!"
Immediately, he brought some water in his bucket and started patting the sand into place. He made two great towers, and a fort surrounding it. Inside this, a giant palace was created, with some twigs on the top. Between the fort and towers, he tried to make a small moat and then stepped back to look at his work of art. It really was good, he decided, and was about run towards his parents to call them, when some noise behind him made him turn.
"Now this is what we call a sandcastle, eh Ajay?" said a lady behind him, wearing a dragon-like bindi, and a multi-colored scarf.
"Indeed, indeed", replied Ajay, who was holding a video camera, "easily the very best we've seen so far! What's your name?"
"R..r..Rohit".
"Let's go", said the lady, and turning to the camera, gave a brilliant smile. "Good evening, this is the 6o'clock news and here we have Rohit, winner of the local sand-castle contest!!", the camera zoomed in on a bewildered Rohit, who was looking at the lady and Ajay as if they had lost their mind. "As you can see, we have a marvelous piece of work here, a grand castle with a fort, towers, and if I'm not wrong, even a moat. Would you like to say something?"
"Hi, I'm Rohit from Bangalore… and… I'm happy to win this…ummm, and I could not have done it without my trusty metal detector!!", he finished, looking fondly at the detector. Meena and Ajay, looked at each other, bemused, but evidently the time was up. They quickly shook hands with Rohit, and scurried away.
He saw his parents and sister had also come up, and as he looked at Sandhya's open mouth, he grinned, and only one thought flashed through his mind - "Ahhh, my metal detector made me famous!!!" As if to prove his point, the detector gave 2 joyful beeps!!
