Once a small boy named Shaan lived in the coastal town of Waves. Every afternoon he would accompany his father to the beach to find new sea shells that washed up on the shore.
His mother once told him, “There are happy mermaids from “Sea World” who send sea shells for children. It is their way of spreading happiness to children who feel sad sometimes”.
Since Shaan also felt sad sometimes he loved collecting these seashells. They always transported him to an imagination of happy mermaids trying to cheer him up.
He had been collecting sea shells for years and would bring them home. Each day his sea shells would be kept in his imaginary treasure chest “ A shoebox”. Whenever he felt sad, he would look at his current favorite sea shell and dream of happy mermaids.
The Beach
On the beach, he would see lively drink stalls filled with tourists. He knew all these stall owners as his father’s friends. They were always elated when a large crowd would come to stay in town. Shaan never understood how they could be happy about more tourists visiting Waves every month.
Every evening, on the beach, Shaan noticed tourists buying different plastic cups filled with drinks. He saw them click pictures of the cups before throwing them in the ocean.
After spending hours looking for sea shells he would sit on the sand to rest. Recently, he had seen the number of sea shells washing up the shore dwindling. He was worried about the happy mermaids in the Sea World.
Shaan would watch these plastic cups float away with the ocean waves. He always wondered ‘What happens to these cups? Do they reach the Sea World? Do the happy mermaids find them?’.
Aftermath of the Storm
One afternoon the coast of Waves was hit by a storm. It was brutal and all the stalls had to remain closed. Shaan couldn’t even go to school because it was raining heavily the whole time.
The next day when Shaan went to the beach, he saw many white gleaming shells from afar. Thinking many new sea shells washed up on the shore in the storm, he ran excitedly to the beach.
Upon reaching the coast he looked around in hopes of finding all the unique shiny shells he saw. Instead, Shaan disappointedly found plastic cups littered across the beach shining under the afternoon sun.
He started collecting these cups quietly. Upon seeing Shaan pick up the washed-up plastic cups, his father and the stall owners approached him.
They asked, ‘What are you doing Shaan? Why are you collecting all this garbage?’.
Shaan replied, ‘I collected the beautiful sea shells the Sea World gave me. Maybe the happy mermaids are sad now with this garbage in their homes and are sending back these cups to us. I am collecting them so that they won’t be sad anymore.’
The elders understood Shaan’s innocence and their ignorance. They knew the ocean had not run out of seashells; rather, the storm had brought all their litter back to them.
They started helping Shaan collect the plastic cups and promised to never let anyone throw their trash in the ocean. From that day Shaan and the elders spent their afternoons cleaning the coast and stopping tourists from throwing plastic into the ocean.
Moral Of The Story- Preserve the Environment and Mother Nature. Say “ No” to pollution!
Story Writer- Aashika Jain