Text
(Textbook Page 8)
medical professional
working for a private company in Raniganj in West Bengal. The officers of the company were housed in individual bungalows inside a large campus. Our house was in a corner of the campus. The officer’s club was
adjacent to
the boundary wall of our garden. The compound was
luxurious
with green grass, colourful flowers and a host of tall and
majestic
trees. The seasonal vegetables in the kitchen gardens of the households and the magnificent trees constantly attracted squirrels and many species of birds; a group of langurs had even made their den in an
aswatha tree
nearby. They had all become 
a part and parcel of our existence and daily life
.
incident
on a Saturday afternoon left a
profound
effect on me and
unfolded
before my eyes a whole new
dimension
to the wonders of God’s
creation
. It was a few days into the Puja vacation. Just like for any other child, the holidays provided an
opportunity
me to become
engrossed
in various magazines and storybooks published specially for children in the festive season.
hearty
lunch, my parents and my younger sisters lay down for an afternoon
nap
and I settled down with a storybook. The quiet afternoon presented the perfect
backdrop
for reading an adventure story. The silence was
occasionally
broken by the sound of my family
snoring
, the
intermittent
chirping
of house sparrows, the
harsh
cawing
of a crow the
shrill
call of a
kite
flying high above the ground. Minutes ticked by. I became deeply absorbed in the book.
furiously
in the distance. I chose to ignore the
commotion
thinking that the pack of dogs might have cornered a hapless pig. But soon, the barking became louder and more aggressive and the alarmed cawing of a flock of crows added to the cacophony. I also heard the disturbance approaching closer.