Dosti ki Khaali Kursi — a story about including a new friend, in Hindi

The story

Ek nayi saheli ke liye dil mein jagah kaise banayein

Inclusion, for a five-year-old, is not a word — it is shifting along the bench. That is what your child will remember from this one. A new family moved into Sapno village yesterday, and with them came little Mira. Everything is new — house, lane, and this morning, school. Maa packs a hot paratha with a piece of gur in her tiffin and says: go on, make new friends today. Mira smiles back, but inside her heart is going dhak-dhak. Nobody at this school knows her. Not one person.

Naani says

जाओ, आज नए दोस्त बनाना। मीरा मुस्कुराई तो, पर अंदर ही अंदर उसका दिल धक-धक कर रहा था।

Go on, make new friends today. Mira smiled — but inside, her heart was going dhak-dhak.

She sits on the last bench. The other children laugh and chatter and nobody says a word to her; nobody even asks her name. Mira stares at her notebook and feels as though she isn't there at all — as if no one can see her. All morning one thought goes round in her head: at lunch, who will I sit with? Then the bell rings, and the children race out to the courtyard, where a long stone chabutra circles a big neem tree and everyone eats together. Mira stops in the doorway, tiffin in hand.

Naani says

किसी ने उसका नाम तक नहीं पूछा। मीरा चुपचाप बैठी अपनी कॉपी देखती रही।

Nobody even asked her name. Mira sat quietly, looking at her notebook.

Naani pauses here to ask your child how Mira must be feeling, standing alone at the door — happy or sad? — and listens. Then Mira makes herself walk out. The chabutra is full of friends. She tries one corner, then another. Nobody looks up. Nobody says, come here. Her paratha is going cold and her eyes are going wet. She is turning to go and sit alone on the far steps when Kabir, at the end of the chabutra, happens to look up and sees her: a new girl, a tiffin, and nowhere to sit.

Naani says

पर किसी ने ऊपर देखा ही नहीं। किसी ने नहीं कहा, यहाँ आ जाओ।

But nobody even looked up. Nobody said, come and sit here.

Kabir does not think about it very hard. He shifts along a little — and there is a space. He pats it and calls, softly: there's room here, come on. Mira hesitates. Is he really calling her? Then she walks over and sits down, and the birds in the neem tree seem to chirp louder. What's your name? Mira. I'm Kabir — you're new, aren't you? Here, want a puri? And she opens her tiffin: then you have my gur paratha. They both laugh. That is all it takes. Mira feels seen; she belongs here now.

Naani says

कबीर थोड़ा सा खिसका, और मीरा के लिए जगह बन गई!

Kabir shifted a little, and there was room for Mira!

By the end of lunch other children have gathered — who's the new friend? Someone gives her imli, someone asks if she will play kho-kho tomorrow. By home time the whole class knows her name. That evening Mira tells her mother that today she found a place to sit, and a friend. She falls asleep thinking about Kabir, and kho-kho.

The value this story teaches

Children between four and seven are forming their first real friendships and, at the same time, learning who gets left out. Most exclusion at this age is not cruelty but not noticing. Friendship as a value means learning to look up — and to act on what you see.

Kabir's gesture is tiny: he shifts along the chabutra, pats the space and says there's room here. Naani gives it full weight by first letting your child stand with Mira at the door, paratha going cold. By the end the whole class knows Mira's name, and it all started with one child moving over.