Aarushi Sinha, a fourth-grade student, shares the tale of Rita, a clever girl who confronts a man-eating tiger. Using her quick thinking, Rita crafts a bold scheme to outwit the predator, ensuring her safety and winning the admiration of her entire village.
Rita is a clever girl. Her presence of mind was such that she could solve any problem, be it back home or be it at school. She used to go to school and returned home along with her friends. This was a regular routine. Her house was located at the end of the village, so when they returned she was the last one to reach home.
One day while returning home, when her friends had already left, she saw something strange. She observed that unlike other days the village looked alarmingly quiet. All the doors and the windows of the houses were closed. Surprisingly even the grocery shop which used to be open till late at night was closed on that day. She wondered why. And almost immediately her question was answered. What she saw was a full-grown tiger right in front of her. His hungry eyes were fixed on Rita.
Rita had heard stories since childhood about man-eaters from the nearby Jaldapara jungle, but she never expected to see one in front of her. What once used was a nightmare for her turned out to be a hard reality.
As she was a clever girl she come out of the initial shock, and started thinking of a way to save herself. She realized running would not help as tigers can move very fast. ‘I must distract the tiger someway’ she thought. She looked around and saw the community dustbin at a distance and immediately an idea came to her mind.
She started running towards the dustbin and the tiger as expected started chasing her. The moment Rita reached the dustbin she turned around and saw the tiger face to face. The tiger was surprised at this action. Rita was looking for this opportunity as she was a clever girl, she started laughing loudly surprising the tiger even further. It was then she said, “Now we have trapped you completely, turn around and see my friend, Hunter Chacha pointing his gun at you.”
Hearing this the tiger was alarmed and looked back. Being clever, immediately Rita jumped and reached the top of the dustbin, another jump and she reached the huge wall of a house, another jump and she reached inside the house.
In the meantime the tiger realised that there was no hunter behind him, he turned back for his prey, but Rita was gone. The tiger realized Rita befooled him, he was angry but had no other option but to return to the jungle.
That evening all the villagers came to Rita’s house and started praising her. It was almost 10 at night when the villagers had left, after which Rita had dinner with her parents and went off to sleep.
