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“What about you, Lalitha? Aren’t you afraid of anything?”Lalitha was not taking part in the conversation. She was sitting by the river lookingrather pensive. But at the mention of her name she pricked up her ears. “Oh, of ghosts,”she said making it up on the spot for she had not thought about it before. Strange, isn’t it,the way we make up things all the time?“Mr. Anand read us some ghost stories in class today,” added Vanita, “and it made myblood curdle”.“I am not afraid of anything,” boasted Sujata who had travelled with her parents toAmerica and had seen something of the other parts of the world.“What about the Maths test tomorrow?” interposed the girl in the red sweater. “Aren’tyou afraid of that?”“My God! I quite forgot about it,” said Sujata and her eyes showed that she wasmortally afraid of the test in question.Lalitha, the pensive one, intervened this time rather quietly. “You know I was thinkingof my mother. She is terribly afraid of my father. He drinks, you know, and we are allscared when he returns home at night.”“It is exactly the opposite in my house,” said Sheila. “Father is scared of my mother.She is the one who is very strict.” They chatted animatedly that morning about their fears.They were always, afraid that some teacher or the other might scold them for doing or notdoing. Sometimes they said they imagined that their own classmates may laugh at themfor giving a foolish answer which could make them feel very ill at weak and so they wereafraid to participate in class; at other times they were afraid they may be late for P.T. orgames or dance. And, of course, there is always the dread of doing poorly in theexaminations, of failing in this subject or that or of what their parents would say abouttheir progress reports. This was common to all and some mentioned that they dislikedbeing compared with their brothers or sisters or anyone else in class and were afraid theirparents were bound to do so. Then again there was also the fear of boys, that they maylease them, may pass comments, may not speak politely or behave in a less gentlemanlyfashion. These girls seemed to be consumed by so many little fears.But did you notice that all these fears were of something trial may happen in the futureand seemed to arise in their own minds. First, the thought that something may happenarises in the mind and immediately it evokes a feeling of fear. Do you notice fear isnothing but a thought of something that may happen in the future, or a remembrance ofsomething that happened in the past and is to be avoided ?And also consider what happens to you when you are full of fear? Suppose you areafraid of not being popular among your classmates, or of” what they may think of you. orof their not accepting you as pan of the group fully, then what happens to you? You beginto imitate them in everything they do don’t you? You follow the way they dress, the waythey talk, the language they use the jokes they crack, the way they walk or do things andso on. Even if you feel like dressing differently or doing something differently, yousuppress that feeling and decide to do what the others do and avoid conflict. Gradually,starting from these small things it is likely that your thinking also is shaped by the groupfor you may be afraid to be original, to have different views on anything. So you cease tobe creative if you are afraid. You will never know what it is to be free if you are all the