A Boy's Tale
[photo credit: original uploader]
''hello friend ! how was your day today ? sach batao you didnt ire your masterji today nah ?and the boys ?? did they bully you again?''
------- ah, she had come again like every other night,her amber eyes warm with concern and affection,her smile amiable,her ropes of hair tossed side by side as she talked animatedly. she knew everything about him till now.slowly and surreptitiously she had gained his confidence,coaxing him to open up night after night.and he trusted her wholeheartedly as much as he had trusted her mother before... ... ... ...
oh how her eyes strained in pain and disbelief when she learnt of his mother's one cruel act of severing all ties with him,his father,his once blissfully happy family.she could never imagine a mother leaving behind his son.
''But,maybe she had a reason, a very serious one.
may be she wanted to tell u that but never found the right moment ?
or maybe she wanted to take u with her but you were not there, haan ? hosakta hai na ?''
and he lashed out at her vehemently,pushing her out of his side.
'' Never ever dare to show ur deceptive face!'',he thundered and she vanished only to return next day,the benign,inviting smile playing on her lips as if they would never leave her alone.she was from a happy household, he rued,jealous of her fortune.she must be her mother's pet, her father's princess.he asked several times only to receive her far away wistful smiles.
''why did u give away the doll, girl ?
do u have lots of them ?''
--------- ''no,but bapusa promised me to get another one from the city.they would return very soon...with that doll and dher sari mithai and their warm comforting embraces ''.
Did he imagine that hint of a forming teardrop on the corner of one of her luminous eyes.He tried to press on but she refused,moving her head vigorously and throwing that pealing laughter to distract him.and he always did get distracted by her fragrant presence,the balmy warmth her body emanated,the distant chimes of her laughter, and her dilated pupils shining in the sunlight like the large bronze thali,his mother took to the temple everyday.
She was made up of wild sunflowers and rarely seen rainbows in a desert sky,of soothing chill waters of pushkar lake and of that unknown element that used to make his mother's gulabjamun mouthwateringly delicious, he decided...and she was as unreal as the angels of his mother's bedtime stories.
Yet she accompanied him everywhere.The city,alien and aloof looked like the hungry jaw of a monster,ready to devour him any moment,and so were its people.Everyone looked sullen and miserable and that contagious infection had affected his father severely.his hatred and bitterness were growing abysmal day by day in front of his own eyes.He had resented his presence and repulsed his mother's eyes on his face.The drunken intensity of his venomous outburst every evening frightened him and he used to shrink back into a dark corner out of his sight,sobbing,shaking violently until she held him tightly in her arms,soothing his erratic heartbeats,calming him back to normalcy with her simple charms.
She always wore blue gharga, a white choli with pieces of glass stitched into intricate designs and they used to throw lights in his eyes unanticipatedly, leaving him blinking and frowning furiously at her.And she liked to surprise him that way.She would laugh sonorously shaking her head pleading with her eyes not to be angry with her little mischiefs.
He showed her all his toy soldiers, his machine man,his big army jeep, his paintings and his story books and read aloud to her.the big boys of the new school beat him for disobeying their rules but he felt strangely relieved when nobody taunted him for his mother's shamelessness.he took all of it with silent defiance burning in his eyes that unnerved them.when they turned their back,lebelling him mad and dangerous, he laughed long and loud throwing his head up in the air...he didnot let her down by using cuss words,she abhored and hitting them back.He suddenly felt changed and grown up and matured enough to take his own responsibily and his wretched father's ... to see the world in the eye and pay back with its own coin. he decided to be a soldier,to obliterate each and every object that could threaten his nation's peace and ofcourse harm her.
''What would u like to be when u grow up, girl ?''
and she stared into his eyes with confused innocence.perhaps she would never grow up...or perhaps she would be the warmth of early sunshine,the sigh of vernal breeze, the morning song of a thrilled cuckoo, the shy blush of a budding red red rose -------ethereal but too delicate for this ugly,harsh, viciously cruel world.
He promised himself to shield her, to be her knight errant, to grow up a man she always wished him to be.
And he grew up...
and pushing her further and further until she dissolved into a faint remembrance.
leaving behind that ragged doll and a fond memory,his last hope of salvation and sanity.
He never got the chance to say thank you.
She never waited that long to hear it.
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And thatz it,I guess !! tell me ur honest opinion.And if u liked it, do not forget to press the like button and leave a comment to me.It boosts confidence, really 😃
Edited by shreya_rc - 10 years ago
