It was a beautiful Sunday. My parents had gone out and I took my cricket bat, ball and stumps to the playground for a game with my friends.

We went on playing till late evening and some of the other boys left by then. It was my turn to bat. The bowler pitched the ball and I hit it a little too hard. The ball fell somewhere in the nearby forest. I went to retrieve it, but stopped short as I saw a long, fat snake. I was scared and ran, but didn’t get too far as I fell. I couldn’t even move.

Later on, my friends found me and took me home. When I think back to that day, I still remember how scared I was.

Manish Kumar, VI B, Sainik School, Goalpara