A Story on a Lost Child: Model Answer with Marking Notes
Quick answer: An original 180-word exam story about a lost child at New Delhi railway station, told from the finder's side, with notes on content, organisation and expression marks.
A story on a lost child works best from the point of view of the person who finds the child, because that gives you a character who must decide what to do. The child being lost is the situation; the finder's choice is the plot. Keep the danger implied, keep the reunion short, and let one detail, a name on a label, a toy, a torn sleeve, carry the emotion. The model below is about 180 words and set at a Delhi railway station.
Students who narrate from the lost child's side tend to write fear for four paragraphs and then a parent appears. That is a description, not a story. The finder's version has a decision in it, and decisions earn content marks.
The task
Typical wording: 'Write a story in 150 to 200 words on the theme A Lost Child.' Outlines often run: 'crowded place ... a small boy crying ... nobody stops ... the narrator's decision ... reunion.' The outline expects you to show what the narrator does with the boy, step by step.
Model answer
Platform Nine. Sana's family was running for the Shatabdi when she saw the boy. He was four, perhaps five, standing at the foot of the stairs on Platform Nine at New Delhi station with both fists pressed into his eyes. People flowed round him the way water flows round a stone.
Her mother called her name from the far end of the platform. Sana looked at the train, then at the boy, and then she crouched down and asked him his name. He said it was Golu. His shirt had a school label sewn inside the collar, and someone had written a phone number on it in blue ink.
She took his hand and walked him to the enquiry office, where a woman with tired eyes read the label and picked up the microphone. Sana heard the announcement roll along the platform in two languages.
The mother arrived running, with one sandal in her hand. She did not say anything to Sana. She did not need to. Sana ran for her train and made it with a minute to spare, and for the whole trip she could not stop smiling.
Why it earns marks
Measured against the three marking heads:
Three other ways to take the same topic
Each gives the finder a decision.
What writers can take from this
- Narrate from the finder, who has a choice to make.
- Give the finder something to lose: a train, a match, a place in a queue.
- Use one object to carry the emotion: a label, a sandal, a toy.
- Show the reunion in a gesture, not a speech.
- Keep the danger implied; no strangers with bad intentions in an exam story.
- Return to the opening (the train, the crowd) in the last paragraph.
Try it yourself
Write a 180-word story in which the narrator finds a lost child in a place where the narrator is also a stranger, and must solve the problem without knowing the local language.
Questions
What is the word limit for a lost child story?
It follows the paper: 100 to 120 words for CBSE Class 9, 150 to 200 for most school exams, 300 to 350 for ICSE. Trim the model by removing the enquiry-office paragraph's detail to reach 120.
Can I write the lost child story from the child's point of view?
You can, but it is harder to make it a story rather than a description of fear. If you do, give the child a decision: to stay put, to ask a particular person, to find a landmark.
Is a moral needed in a lost child story?
Only if asked. A fitting one-line moral for the model above would be 'A minute given to a stranger is never wasted.' Do not add one where the question does not require it.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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