As the afternoon started, and as I realised I was little better I decided to take myself out for a walk...Sleeping almost 40 hrs in the stuffed room had made me feel suffocated to the core, and I was really in need of some fresh air, and not to mention some warm coffee (actually chilled, but owing to my pathetically infected throat, hot cuppacino was all I could afford)...I convinced my roommate and aunty to let me go for a walk (of course after making thousand promises including the one not to have anything cold and of course junks) and finally I was out of my place...
Within fifteen minutes of a slow and indulging walk in the afternoon shade, I picked up my coffee, packed few choco cookies (purely out of frustration of not able to taste anything with my fever struck tongue) and greedily stared at all the chilled coffees the coffee shop guys were placing on the tables...I cancelled my plan of sitting down in the coffee shop and decided it would be best if I left right then, cuz, knowing myself well, I knew that if I stayed back, in next ten minutes I would order a chilled coffee too, and would end up gulping it down, and by evening I would again be attacked by my idiotic fever...I got all my things parcelled and walked out of the place...And of course, all the while cursing my feverish self...
As I walked towards home, decided to stay outside a little longer...The weather was fine, if not really pleasant, and the fresh air had really made me feel good...Also, Diwali decoration had made the entire colony look just amazing...Colourful little bulbs were hanging from all around, Chinese design inspired red lights were royally staring from all across and it was very obvious for one to imagine that once the afternoon turns into evening, the place would look no less than a fairyland...I was really happy, and decided to sit down at the corner of the long staircases of the private bank and finish my coffee...The place I chose to sit down was one such that I could see the entire street, including the small huts that existed by the under constructed 15 storey building, which lot of people said, was going to be a super luxury shopping mall and also high end residential blocks...Well, by then I would be gone from this place, I told myself as I shifted my attention from the building and it's sky high net covered skeleton...
As my soul started getting soaked in the beautiful afternoon, I saw a little boy coming and sitting few steps away from my feet...He had an old ludo board in his hand, and as he placed it next to him, I wondered what he intended to do next...Well, he sat quietly for a while, stared at me and my phone a couple of times and then again kept things to himself...I kept sipping my coffee and as I did, kept typing relentlessly on my phone (well, that's one habbit I can't get rid off, typing things that comes to my mind every now and then)...Didn't know how much time had passed, but as I looked up after finishing with my typing, I found the little guy again staring at me...
This time, irritated, I called him, 'Hey, come here...What's your name?' 'Bittu', he said in a softer voice than I expected...That made my suddenly rising temperature come down...In a much better and softer way I asked again, 'Why you staring at me? It's bad to stare at strangers na'...Keeping his gaze fixed to the floor, he said, 'I just wanted to ask you if you want to play with me...I have no friends to play with you see'...If this had come from an older guy, he would have definitely got a dose of my kicks, but coming from a little kid (of hardly 6 or 7), it made me feel really bad...I asked him why he didn't have friends...And next ten minutes, I knew the story of a little kid, with a past that still haunted his presence and with a future that would never be the way it was supposed to be (or atleast that is what happens in our country, unless and until there happens some miracle)...
This little kid, Bittu had never seen his dad...When he was 2 years old his dad died in some accidents, which his mom never explained excatly to him...His mom worked as a maid, to 5 households, and that made her run from one place to another everyday...She worked hard and had plans like any oher mom, of making Bittu a big man one day...And, Bittu, as much as a little kid he was, seemed to understand his mom and her dreams completely...He did all his home work alone, after school hours never went out with friends to play and never nagged his mom for anything, not even for her time...His mom always told him to go out, play and brought him everything she could afford, and Bittu told me, it always hurt him, for his mom spending all the money she hard-earned, on him...'I don't need so many things na Didi, but mom gives me so much'...I stared with beyond amazement, at this little kid, at this age he talked like someone with a life long experience...And that made me wonder about millions of those kids (sadly, including me), who had guiltlessly taken all the advantages from their parents, and still not being content...
I looked back down the time lane, and saw myself at Bittu's age...At 6, I was one of the most difficult kids, well, atleast my entire clan still says so...Pampered by all, and unofficially crowned as Dad's Princess, everybody had a tough time dealing with me...Cribbing (in my own dignified way), nagging (in my own style of silence) and demanding (with a no-word-and-a-sweet-smile) were my shadows, and strangely enough I was lucky enough to have everybody around me doing their bit for my smile...Such a bad kid I was...Thanks to God, in the later years, I tried learning to be better, and thanks to my loved ones, I'm a much better person now...Well, I'm so sure that there exist at least a million like me, who have never had to face something like this little kid Bittu, at age 6...I'm so sure there are millions of us who have never seen actual struggle and tough times...Yes, I know, there are also thousands like Bittu, who have never had the luxury of actually being a child and enjoying the innocent childhood joys, are deprived of enjoying the best gift of childhood, that is his parents' true company...
Yes, the most startling statement by this kid was something to do about his parents' company...He told me, he always felt sad that his mom cared for him way too much...But, he felt sadder, for the fact that he could never tell his mom that his actual happiness lied in her company, rather than the toy car that she bought him...'I know, she has to work...I know she works for me...But, you see, I miss her...I miss my dad too...I have never seen him, but so many times I have dreamt of him...Me sleeping between him and mom...But, you see, I don't have a dad...And, that's a fact...So as much as I dream, in real I will always have to sleep alone'...Bittu said...Well, it was one of those rare afternoons and rare conversations, when I had few words to say in return...I had no way to tell this little kid things which can match upto his depth of thinking and intelligence...But, kids are kids, for, he said again, 'I like those days when I'm not well...Mom comes home early, and sits next to my bed and strokes my hair...She makes me sleep in her lap...But, being sick for too long is also bad, she starts crying and all...But, I really like to fall sick once in a while, for mom to come home early and sit with me'...
The whole sudden incident of meeting this little kid, knowing his story and realizing the same was real heavy on me...At least after my two days long medical torture, I was not in a situation to really digest it...I decided to lighten things a little...I opened the choco cookies and handed couple of them to him...I guess, by now this innocent soul had considered me as his friend...So he took the cookies...We munched them together...At a point we finished them...As I threw the box to the dustbin, I asked him, where did he live...He pointed to the back of the bank, only then I realized that these stairs were his everyday waiting place, for his mom to return...I said someday I will come and meet his mom, and said bye to him as I started walking towards home in the narrow lane...
The lights were turned on by then...They had made the place look really heavenly...I looked back, Bittu was still sitting in the same place...I felt a sudden pang in my stomach...A little kid, of mere 6, waiting for his only parent to come back home...A little soul who longed for little pampering from his parents...A unlucky little life, whose misfotune took his dad away from him and also kept him away from his mom's caring arms cuz, she has to make sure that he survived...And, someone, who would have to grow up this way, would be a teenager one day, a young boy one day and a matured man one day, yet would never realize what it is to have a caring and pampering dad around...What it is to chat with mom, over dinner, what it is to have small arguements with mom with him and dad being one team, and also the other way around, what it is to have a complete family...Cuz, fate had really played hard on this innocent boy, first taking his dad away from him, and second making his mom fighting for both of their survival...And, I knew, Bittu is not the only one in this world to have such a fate...The thought of realizing the count scared me...To the core...And I pushed these thoughts away...
I dialled my dad's no...Him, being the one person in my life, whose single word makes my fear vanish, is whom I call when I'm in a situation that makes me sweat...'Yeah Aaimy (my dad calls me that), you feeling better na, I thought you're sleeping, so didn't call baby', dad said with a worried tone, as he picked up my call...As I said I was fine and was taking a walk outside, he seemed relieved...I was relieved too, talking to him anyday made me a stronger person, but today, it really made me feel how lucky I was to have him in my life...As he was keeping down the phone after ten minutes, I said, suddenly, and abruptly, 'Dita, I love you, and I miss you...All the time'...My dad might have surely thought, medicines had made me go into trance, turning me real emotional...But, he wouldn't know, I had really meant those words...More than anything I had ever said in my life to anyone...
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