“That’s exactly what I DON’T want you to pack…those raggedy old jeans!” They’d argued for a bit but Anjali eventually won. And now, in her 3rd month of her new life in a boarding school, she was glad she’d brought her ‘old quilt’. How was Mama to ever know what power that quilt had? Dadima had made it with her own hands. And it was her masterpiece. Every time somebody in the family got married, Dadima would get a call.

The bride-to-be would want Dadima to embroider a silk sari pallu, or if she had the time, a bed spread. Dadima’s fingers created magic. But Anjali believed that this quilt was her best work. Not only did it look gorgeous, it was packed with secrets that only Anjali and her Dadima shared. Powerful secrets. Little embroidered patterns that Anjali could ‘read’. It was like having Dadima ‘talk’ to her, even though she was not around. 

That first week when the new girls got bullied and cried themselves to sleep in the dormitories, Anjali refused to buckle down. She ran her fingers over a corner of the quilt that her Grandma had reserved for ‘strength’.
It had an elephant standing alone -- a group of lions, monkeys and deer were all crowded together, away from it. To anybody else, it looked like pretty embroidery, but Anjali knew what Dadima was telling her, ‘Even if you’re alone, be STRONG!” 

Later when Anjali was accepted by ‘the gang’, they’d planned on raiding another new girl’s cupboard. Caught between being a ‘popular’ member of the gang, and not wanting to hurt the new girl, the quilt settled the matter for her. Dadima had embroidered the 3 monkeys who spoke no evil, saw no evil and heard no evil. Anjali was somehow able to divert the gang to go to the back kitchens and beg the cooks for left-over cakes, so everybody forgot the new girl, in the process.

Dadima had been especially worried about Anjali’s stomach, which tended to get upset  only because Anjali loved food! So there was a corner of embroidery devoted to ‘Greed’! A fat priest lying under a tree…from a funny story about a greedy priest who needed the temple elephant to drag him home after feasts! That was the best part of Dadima’s quilt…only Anjali could ‘read’ it. Dadima had also added a special picture to remind her grand daughter about her nasty temper. 

One day, after a fight with Viveka over a library book (which was now tucked under her pillow!), Anjali had gone to bed fuming, determined never to talk to her friend-of-just-two-months.

Her hands felt around for the quilt’s ‘Strength’ corner, expecting to feel good about not giving in to Viveka. But somehow that solitary elephant didn’t console her. Was Dadima trying to tell her something else? She checked out ‘Greed’ but the over-fed priest didn’t seem to ‘talk’ to her. Neither did the 3 monkeys!

Slowly her hands traced out Dadima’s ‘hot-temper’ reminder. There was a line of stick figures, embroidered with their hands intertwined. The next line of stick figures were broken in the middle with 2 figures NOT holding hands. And the 3rd line had all the figures forming a circle, with one stick figure out of the circle.

Now THAT was not a story…that had really happened at home one holiday when Anjali’s friends had finally got tired of her hot temper! Somehow, THIS felt like Dadima was ‘talking’ to her! Quietly Anjali sat up, slipped her hand under her pillow for the book and headed towards Viveka’s bed…Dadima was right; that book wasn’t worth losing a friend for!  

Kavitha Mandana