TaniaIsASpy

ByKanikaG

Copyright2014byKanikaG

Website:

https://sites.google.com/site/kanikagebooks/

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InspiredbytheEnidBlytonMysterySeries

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Tania Is A Spy

Tania's 5th birthday was on 2nd March2015. Her family and friends knew aboutthe reading club called "BookwormBabies", that she had started. So, sheobviously got a lot of books as birthdaygifts. A few people gave her artsupplies and board games. Tania was veryhappy with the gifts but she wonderedwhat aunt Poonam would send her.

A couple of days later, a packagearrived for Tania by courier. She wasintrigued. It was the first time shereceived anything by courier. Sheinspected the package carefully and saw

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it was from aunt Poonam. She opened itup. Inside was a note:

HappybirthdaymydarlinglittleTania.Ithinkyouarenowoldenoughtoreceivepackagesinyourownname.Hopeyouhavelotsofadventureswiththisgift.

Lotsoflove,

AuntPoonam.

The gift was a lovely pair of pinkbinoculars. They looked really cute andsophisticated at the same time.

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Tania asked "Mama what is this?"

Mama said, "These are binocularssweetie. You use them to look at faraway objects. Here, come to the window.Now look. Can you see that lady walkingthere?"

"Yes I do."

"Now look at her through the binoculars,like this. Does it look different?"

"Yes, mama. I can see her much more

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clearly now. I can even count the numberof bangles she is wearing. But what dopeople use this for?"

"People take it to soccer matches sothey can see the game clearly from thefar away seats in the stadium."

"Ah, okay. But what do I do with it?"

"You'll think of something."

Tania could not think of anything rightaway so she put away the binoculars. Amonth and a half went by and Tania'asummer vacation started. With schoolclosed Tania was reading the books shegot as birthday gifts at a great rate.She loved reading the Enid Blyton booksin particular. She read about littlekids solving mysteries and shadowingpeople and the whole thing sounded tooexciting for words.

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Tania wanted to shadow people too andmake notes about their suspiciousbehaviour in a notebook. But she knewmama would never allow that. Then shehad an idea. She would climb up the verytall, leafy tree in the housing societyand spy on people walking around withher binoculars. Excited, she ran to askmama if that was okay.

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It seemed like harmless fun and Tanialooked so eager, so mama approved. Shesaid, "You can do that Tania. But don'tlook into people's houses through theirwindows, because that is not nice."

Tania talked to Tanisha about it andthey planned their spying expedition forthe next day. They decided to startafter lunch at 1:30 p.m. Afternoonseemed like the perfect time to catchpeople partaking in suspicious activity.They also decided to carry some snacks.

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Kids in the Enid Blyton books always hadtasty stuff to eat.

The next day Tania packed herbinoculars, notebook, pencil a sandwichand some cookies in her backpack.

Just as she was leaving mama put hercell phone in Tania's backpack. Shesaid, "I want you to have my cell phonejust in case I need to talk to you orneed you back home. It is hard tocontact you when you are up a tree."

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Tania arrived at the tree to findTanisha already waiting there with herpurse full of snacks, notebook andpencil. The girls climbed the tree. Theymade themselves comfortable on one ofthe sturdy upper branches where theywere well hidden by the leaves. Therewas no point spying on people if theycould see you doing it.

Tania and Tanisha took turns at scanningthe place with the binoculars, but noone suspicious seemed to be around.Tania complained, "This is the problemwith living in a respectableneighbourhood. Nothing interestinghappens here." How wrong Tania was! Justminutes after she said this things beganto heat up.

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Tanisha was admiring Karishma's dad'snew Bentley parked down below. It was alovely sleek black car.

Soon somebody came by the car. Taniaassumed it was the driver. Tanisha waslooking through the binoculars and shesaw that it wasn't. The man was actingrather suspicious. Tania and Tanishamade notes of his appearance in theirnotebooks. Bald, goatee, medium heightand weight and crooked eye brows. Helooked around to see if anyone wasthere. Of course he did not notice thegirls up on the tree, well hidden by theleaves. Then he started fiddling with

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the door. Tania and Tanisha werewondering what he was doing. Tania said"I have my mother's cell phone. Let'spretend he is stealing the car and makea video to give the police."

"Yes" said Tanisha. "That is a greatidea."

Tania had learned quite well how to makevideos at a time when she was obsessedwith watching videos of herself. So

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together the girls made a clear videorecording of the man's activities andthey even zoomed in to get a clearpicture of him.

As they were filming they saw the man

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get in to the car and drive off. "Do youthink he really did steal the car?"asked Tanisha excited.

"I doubt it. He is probably a substitutedriver" said Tania. "I have never heardof cars being stolen here. Have you?"

"I suppose not" said Tanishadisappointed.

The girls spent some more time lookingaround while they chatted and ate theirsnacks. But nothing else remotelyinteresting happened and they went home.

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That evening when Tania and Tanisha wereplaying outside they heard a few peopletalking about a stolen black Bentley.The police had no idea who stole it. Thesecurity guard had assumed the driverwas taking it out to fill petrol orsomething.

The girls looked at each other inexcitement. They ran up to Tania'shouse. Mama was home. They told herabout the video and about peoplediscussing the stolen Bentley.

Mama promptly called Karishma's house

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and told her father everything the girlshad told her. He was relieved. He tookthe video to the police station.

It turned out that the thief had beenrecently employed as a driver by someonein the housing society. He was a memberof a gang of successful car thievesoperating in the city. They posed asdrivers in respectable neighbourhoods.They stole cars belonging to someoneother than the person who employed them,so they were usually not suspected. Andto think the thief would have got awaywith the stolen car if it had not beenfor the video.

The girls were ecstatic with the outcomeof their spying expedition. Tania toldaunt Poonam all about her amazingadventure during their next video chatand thanked her for the binoculars.

Whatever will Tania do next? I can'twait to find out. Can you?

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The Bentley image was posted by Conny Sandland at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/carworld/3803685042/

All the above images are under the following license:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

A big thank you to https://openclipart.org/ andhttp://www.pdclipart.org/ for making their imagesfreely available. Many of the images in the Taniabooks are obtained from these websites.

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