Kannika loved buffalos almost as much as she loved ice cream. “Buffalos are stupid and stubborn,” her father said. “Only good for hard work and keeping the grass down.” Kannika paid him no attention when he said things like that. She knew better. He was a grumpy old man with a sour heart. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had seen him smile. She wondered what her mother saw in him. In Kannika’s eyes, her mother was the most beautiful woman in the district. Her beauty and grace were famous, her kindness unsurpassed. When she wasn’t at school, Kannika was helping her father in the fields. If it were up to him, Kannika wouldn’t be allowed to go to school, but her mother insisted she needed an education. Still, long hours were spent toiling and listening to him scold the rice crop, grumble at the sun and moan to the rain. She would laugh at his cursing. “They can’t hear you, father,” she used to tell him. “They only understand the language of the wind. Listen carefully and you will understand too!” Her father would then chastise her for being a silly child. “What would you know of … Continue reading Buffalos and Ice Cream