New Dehli, 1954. A child is born to a middle-class family. The parents buy her little toys to play with, and the one she latches onto the most is her teddy bear, which she, when she’s old enough to speak, names “Mr. Bertram”. Her love condenses into the spirit of the bear, which loves her back, in the passive, helpless way that stuffed animals do.
In 1966, she’s grown up; stuffed animals aren’t as important to her anymore, so she keeps Mr. Bertram on a shelf, instead of taking him everywhere like she did when she was little.
She is, in that year, chosen to be the Power of Stuffed Animals.
She stops growing, She stops changing the way people do because she is no longer a person. In a sense, she is still a 12 year old girl. In another, a 59 year old woman. Her parents are dead. Her older brother is dead. Her younger sister is a grandmother.
Mr. Bertram can’t help with these problems any more than he could when he was just an inanimate object. But at least now he can help her by walking around and physically protecting her. It makes him proud and happy to finally have a chance to do something other than watch.
PS - "Arora" is actually her last name.
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