up the stairs and reached the attic on the second floor of the house. ‘This was my favourite room,’ said Aditya. The attic has always been a favourite with children. It is in the attic that the child seems to be in a world of its own.
A portion of a wall of the attic had crumbled down, and through the ‘window’ that had been created, we could see the sky, the fields, a part of the rice mill, the spire of the old temple. In the whole house, the attic had probably been the worst hit by wind and weather. The floor was strewn with twigs and straw and pigeon droppings. Among other things, there was a broken cricket bat, the remains of an armchair and a wooden packing case.
Aditya got on top of the packing case and pushed his hand inside the ventilator, thus upsetting a sparrow’s nest, a part of which fell to the ground. However, he heaved a sigh of relief when he had got what he had been looking for. When I h. What did Nagen uncle tell about Sanyal?
i. In what way was Mr. Sanyal’s behaviour strange? 10th - - asked him what it was, he said, ‘You’ll get to know very soon.’ We next went to a jeweller’s to find out the weight of the article.
The jeweller remarked that it was an antique. Our next stop was the house of Jogesh Kabiraj. Though I was a little curious, I didn’t ask Aditya anything. We entered the house and went to the room where Sasanka Sanyal stayed.
Sasanka uncle was busy reciting verses from Tagore. When he had finished, Aditya asked, ‘May we come in?’ He turned and faced us. ‘No one visits me,’ he said in an unperturbed manner. ‘Would you mind if we come in?’ ‘Come in.’ Except for a charpoy there was nothing else to sit on, so we remained standing.
‘Do you remember Aditya Narayan Chowdhury?’ Aditya asked him. l. Why was the attic ‘a favourite place’ for the children? m.
What did Aditya