O P O O

TH E P O
N ST E R
MO
How Children
Saved the World
by Javed Malick
With illustrations by
Cyra Kapoor Malick &
Keyan Kapoor Malick
Once upon
a time, a
very big, very
scary monster
appeared in the
It was called
human world.
Corona.
Nobody knew where he had come from and no one knew how to get rid of him. He was so huge that when he
stood up, his head disappeared into the clouds. When he walked, he walked with big, giant steps. He could
quickly move from one country to another, from one continent to another, with one single step. No one could
see him clearly but he saw everyone. His big fiery eyes could see and scare all the world at the same time. He
threatened and frightened people everywhere and made them very sick. He was especially dangerous to old
people.
Everyone everywhere was so scared that they locked themselves in their houses and did not go out. Many days
passed. Without people, without traffic, with streets and markets empty, and offices and restaurants closed,
every town looked spooky, like a ghost town. Everyone was unhappy and disgusted with the situation.
Unhappiest of all were the children. Their schools were closed and playgrounds were shut. They could not
visit one another or go out and have fun with their friends. No outdoor games and no birthday parties. They
just had to stay at home and find something, anything, to amuse themselves with. They also did not like the
emptiness and silence that they found whenever they looked out of the window. All this was very boring and
dull. They hated it.
Among these unhappy children were Cyra and Keyan, who lived in New Delhi.
They too were not allowed to go out, meet friends or even to visit their dear
old Dadu in Noida who made up wonderful stories for them. Keyan was not
only unhappy, he was angry too. Dadu had told them that there were many
people who had lost their lives or lost their jobs because of this monster. Many
were left with no homes, no money, and no food. They wanted to go back to
their villages but there were no trains and no buses. He felt very sorry that
thousands of them, with their little children just like him and his sister, were
trying to walk many miles on foot. He thought that these children were even
more unhappy than him and his friends. They had to fight not one but two
monsters: Corona and Hunger. And they did not have anything or anyone to
protect them. This made Keyan sad and angry. One day, thinking of those
poor children and feeling bad and helpless, he said to Cyra:
“Corona is very bad. I hate him. He is a dirty, ugly monster.”
Cyra agreed. “Yes, he is a poopoo,” she said.
They both laughed at this. They ,went to the window and shouted “Corona, you
are a poopoo.” Then they ran around the room chanting, Corona is a poopoo
monster, Corona is a poopoo monster,” giggling all the time.
But Keyan was not ready to give up easily. He wanted to do something about
the monster. He seriously wanted to push this monster out of the world. So
another day when they were playing the game of Snakes and Ladders for the
tenth time, he suggested to Cyra that they must find some way to disappear
the monster. Cyra saw that Keyan was really serious and was surprised at the
silliness of his idea:
“Keyan, are you completely mad? Do you know how powerful the monster is?
Even big people cannot make it go away. They tried everything. They even
drank the cow’s soosoo. They banged kitchen pots like crazy and shouted ‘Go
Corona go’. But Corona did not go away. If the big people could not get rid of
him, how can we? We are only little children.”
Keyan had no answer to this. He knew Cyra was right. For some time, he
remained silent and looked disappointed. Then suddenly he cheered up, and
said,
You are right. We are small children. But David defeated Goliath. Remember?
He too was a small child like us and Goliath was a big giant like Corona. Also
in that Pete Seeger song a little boy with just a ukulele was able to control
AbiYoyo, another giant. Remember? If they could, why can’t we?”
Cyra laughed and said : “But, Keyan, those are stories. Those are not real
children. They are only pretend children, story-children.”
Keyan retorted: “We too are story-children. We are in this story that Dadu
is making up.”
Cyra was still not convinced and said:
“You are right. But What will we fight the monster with? Dadu has not
given us anything to throw at him or to scare him with. Not even a
ukulele.” She smiled a little and then said seriously:
“Give up Keyan. Believe me there is nothing that we can do to make him
go away. He is so big that we can’t even see him when we look out of the
window.”
They felt defeated and continued with their game. They did not speak
about the monster again. Days passed. Every day, they saw on the TV
reports about thousands of hungry families with small children walking
in the hot sun. All this made their unhappiness and anger to continue
to grow inside them.
Then, one day, Cyra suddenly said,
“You know what, Keyan?”
“What?”
“I have been thinking about what you said the other day. About getting
rid of the poopoo monster.”
“What about it?”
“I think we are making a mistake in thinking that we can make him go
away by ourselves. Because we are just two of us. We should talk to our
friends and other children. If we all think together, maybe we can find a
solution. “
Keyan agreed, “ Great idea! Let us phone our friends. We should tell
them also to phone their other friends who can call their own friends
too. Like this we can get a whole lot of kids with us and then we can
together think about what to do.”
“Yes. Let us do that.”
Cyra borrowed their baba’s phone and they began to call their friends
on Zoom. They zoomed Rukmini, Raghu, Zoya, Gayatri, Uma, Aida, Soma,
Ira, Inayat, Junaki, Yuvan, Samuel, and many others. All these children
then called their other friends who also contacted their friends.
In this way the number of children kept increasing. Soon hundreds
of children were discussing the plan with one another. Every child
everywhere was unhappy with the monster and was eager to be part of
the plan to throw him out.
However, it was not easy to think of or agree on anything. They went on
discussing for several hours each day but could not decide how to get
rid of the monster. Finally one morning, Soma said:
“My dad, who is a doctor, says that this monster hates soap and runs
away from it.”
Inayat confirmed it:
“My mom is a scientist and she also says that soap destroys Corona.”
This was a very important information. Everyone began to talk about it.
After sometime Keyan said thoughtfully:
“So… if we throw some soap on him perhaps that will make him go
away.”
“I think so”, Soma and Zoya said together.
Rukmini who was listening to this quietly asked:
“But how will we do it?”
Yuvan added:
“He is so big. We will need lots and lots of soap. Where will we get it
from?”
They thought about this problem for some time. Then Raghu said:
“I have a friend, Irfan. His father owns a soap making factory in Baroda. Let us call him.” They called Irfan and
told him the problem. Irfan was very happy to help:
“That should not be difficult. I am sure Abbu will agree to give us as much soap as we need. He also wants the
monster to be thrown out.”
They felt relieved. Then Uma asked:
“But how do we know exactly how much soap we will need? Is there someone who can give us an idea, even a
rough one?”
Cyra had been listening to the conversation quietly and frowning. She asked:
“And how will we put it on the monster? Will we shower it on him? And how will we do that? I think we are being
very silly.“
“What do you mean?,” Zoya asked.
“I mean we have all gone crazy. Thousands of kilos of soap! Mixed in thousands of litres of water! Do you have
any idea how much that is? Where will we keep it? How will we throw it on the monster?”
Everyone fell silent. They knew what Cyra was saying was correct. Their plan of throwing thousands of litres of
soap water on Corona was not practical.
“Then what should we do?,” Inayat asked.
“I don’t really know,” Cyra answered, “but one thing is clear. This plan of thousands of kilos of soap and water
will not work. We have to find some other simpler way.”
Uma agreed with Cyra but also added:
“But whatever we do, it will have to be with soap and water, because soap destroys Corona. Remember?”
Hearing the mention of soap and water, 3-year old Junaki shrieked with excitement. “I want to make soap
bubbles, I want to make soap bubbles.” Aida and several other younger children joined her and there was a
chorus of:
“Yes, let us play with soap bubbles. Let us have some fun please.”
This made everyone laugh at the little ones. They ignored them and
went on discussing how to drive the monster out. But found no solution.
Soon it was dinner time. Everyone had to eat and go to bed. Keyan,
whose fascination with all kinds of flying machines was well known, went
to sleep thinking of helicopters, airplanes, rockets, spaceships and so
on. That night he kept dreaming that he was flying a big cargo plane
and dropping something from high up. In the morning he described his
dream to Cyra who laughed and said “Silly. You and your planes!”
Then suddenly, she shouted:
”KEYAN! I hope you are not suggesting that we get an airplane and
a pilot to shower soap on the monster! DON’T! No more wild ideas,
pleeease!”
They got out of bed, washed, and were just finishing their breakfast
when the phone rang. It was Soma. She sounded very excited.
“I have a wonderful idea,” she said breathlessly, ”Can we have a meeting
in half hour?”
They hurried up and sat down with Zoom. Soon all the children were
connected. Together, they asked: ”What is it, Soma? Tell us quickly
please.”
“OK. You all remember what little Junaki said yesterday?”
“No. What?”
“She said she wanted to play with soap bubbles. Remember?”
Others laughed and Irfan said: “Oh yes, she said that, silly kid.”
Soma said: “Well, think about it.”
“Soma please don’t tease us. Tell us quickly.”
“Alright. Just think, if all the children from everywhere blew soap
bubbles from their windows, balconies, roofs, or just doors, there
will be lots and lots of soap in the air. No?”
“And we know that Corona does not like soap. So much soap in the
air will make the monster run away!” Uma and Gayatri interjected
with excitement.
“Wow what a brilliant idea,” Ira added.
“And so simple,” Rukmini said.
Cyra was excited too. She suggested that they should decide the
exact time and day for blowing the bubbles so that all of them do it
at the same time. Everybody agreed with her.
“Good idea. We should start exactly at 9 O’clock on Sunday morning
and blow bubbles until the monster runs away,” Samuel suggested.
“But what if he just runs away to another country?” wondered Aida.
Cyra: “That is right. We should make the monster disappear from
the whole world. Not just from India.”
Raghu was not sure. He said that it is not 9 AM everywhere at the
same time. “When it is morning here it is evening and even night in
some other parts of the world,” he pointed out.
Ira who knew many big words, said: So how will we synchronise? How
will we make sure that the children everywhere blow bubbles at the same time?”
“It is not difficult,” said Yuvan, “everyone should do it exactly when it is 9 AM in India and not worry about the
time in their own country.”
They all agreed.
It was decided that they should start working on it immediately. They called their cousins and friends in
India and abroad and told them to call their cousins and friends everywhere else. There was so much
excitement and such a huge number of phone calls that even newspapers and TV channels came to know
of it. They carried daily reports about how the children were preparing to get rid of the monster. This spread
the news even further. Every child in every part of the world knew about it and waited eagerly to participate
in the attack on Corona monster.
Finally the day of the action arrived. Millions and millions of children stood ready at their windows, doors,
balconies, and rooftops, with buckets of soap water and their bubble makers, all set to begin. Precisely when
it was 9 in the morning in India, they filled their bubble makers with soap water and began to blow bubbles.
It was a beautiful sight. So many children of different sizes, different races, different countries, in so many
different styles and colours of dress, all standing out and blowing soap bubbles. TV channels telecast the
whole spectacle through their satellite cameras. Every one saw with great fascination how the entire earth
was covered in thick sheets of soapy air.
TV cameras also showed how the Corona monster, screaming wildly and in panic, tried frantically to run from
one part of the world to another. But he could not find anywhere to hide. Because every place that he tried
to run away to was filled with soap bubbles.
Hours passed. The monster began to melt and dissolve. Finally all that was left of him was a huge puddle of
soap water. Excited TV announcers kept screaming on top of their voices:
“The monster is dead! The monster is dead!”
Others shouted: “Children have saved the world! Long live children! Children zindabad!”
The big people also joined in shouting: Children zindabad! They hugged the children and kept repeating
“Thank you! Thank you dear ones!”
The children too were very happy because now they did not have to remain at home all the time. They ran out
chanting:

as r u n a w a y
o m o n st e r h
P o o p o d pl a y
w g o o u t a n
Let us n o u bb les
w it h so a p b
W a s h ed a w ay ble s
o m o r e t r o u
c a n c a u s e n
H e h ey
h a, h ey h e y
Ha h a ru n a w ay !
m o n st e r h a s
Po o po o