Toy story

...wonderful world...

...Isn't it wonderful...

...Yes," I said bravely...

...When I visit the United States, I am always enchanted with the wonderful things my nephews and nieces have to play with-the charm of their lifelike little dolls and tea sets, the imagination that produces their tool benches and music boxes and those telephones that ring, all so colorful and sturdy, designed to transport them into whatever make-believe world they care to inhabit...

...Then I remembered what Chesterton said: "The optimist is a better reformer than the pessimist...

...Madame...

...Is all of this yours...

...both he and Patrick had saved their pocket money for several months so I could use it to buy treats for the children in the school...

...one] must think injustice absurd, an anomaly in existence, a matter less for tears than for laughter...

...I went home in September for my niece's wedding and while there, I gathered up three cartons of toys, books, and art supplies which my sister-in-law, Sally, had collected for me in a drive at her son's school (this was the third time I was carrying stuff back from that same toy drive, and there is still more in Sally's basement...

...I said, sharing his amazement, but substituting delight for his indignation...

...She was reading the brochure, her face going all soft, and when she looked up I knew my problems were over...

...And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

...they exclaim...

...Are these all yours...

...he asked, in a tone that implied there could be no answer but yes...

...I have stopped worrying...

...Believe me, it isn't easy...

...Twice in the last ten years, some real stickler for the rules has charged me, but never for more than one box, and I always have at least three or four...

...First class...

...Yes...

...What could he do but agree...

...one of them said to me sternly this time as I walked confidently through the terminal, trailed by three porters pushing my overloaded trolleys...

...One favorite is an empty matchbox tied to a piece of string and dragged along behind them as they walk down the street...

...On one memorable trip, I had six, all huge...

...Because that's fun, too-and seeing the astonishment in their eyes when we open a box full of bright and sparkly surprises from the United States is worth all the trouble it takes to get it here...

...I would fume about the unfairness and the waste and the extravagance of these American kids having everything while their Indian counterparts made do with matchboxes...

...Oh, just shove them all in," she said to the astonished porter...

...she asked finally...

...Economy," I squeaked...

...G. K. Chesterton once wrote that "it is not enough [to] think injustice distressing...

...Especially since I said it all in Hindi...

...They're all toys for my school-all donated, and I didn't even have to pay the airline...

...Well," I began, handing her a brochure, "I run this school in India for children with mental handicaps and all these boxes contain toys...

...This time, you'll have to pay...

...It used to bother me no end to see the average American toy room, filled to the rafters with so many things that a child could hardly walk from the bed to the door without tripping over a Lego table or a Tonka truck...

...Here in India, it is the children themselves who have to be inventive, creating their own toys out of whatever bits and pieces they can come up with...

...Hannah, Sam, Willie, Sarah, Owen, Sheila, Grace, and Enzo-they are all just waiting to grow up enough to play their part in changing the world...

...another a discarded key that forms the basis for a game involving an abandoned castle and an imprisoned maiden...

...It is their generosity that keeps filling those cartons with toys and books and games, and the children who never quite grew up at the airline counters and in the customs office who keep seeing that they arrive here intact and for free...

...As he loaded one box after the other onto the scale at the check-in counter, the ticket agent looked more and more horrified...

...Since I began celebrating the wonderful good fortune that has given my nephews and nieces all the toys they could ever dream of, I have begun to realize what was always true: they are remarkably generous children...

...You'll have to pay excess baggage charges," she said severely...

...On this last visit home, Liam had a whole box of his beloved Hardy Boys books packed and waiting for me to take back for our children's center library...

...Those three boxes were, of course, all excess baggage, and no matter how many times I have done it, my family still sees me off with trepidation and dismay: "They'll never let you on the plane with all that stuff...

...That time, my sister had sent me down from her home in New Hampshire in a stretch limousine and as I emerged at the airport, feeling very self-conscious, a porter bore down upon me, looking predatory...

...I could see she wasn't listening...

...Much as I admire the resourcefulness of children who know how to make their own fun, I also long for them to have some of the ready-made stuff that our American children take for granted...

...In India, the same thing happens with the customs officers...

...and the one who believes life to be excellent is the one who alters it most...

...They're toys for her school...