As I roamed around the streets A grew up in, surrounded with people who have never forgotten him despite of all these years and distances, I silently envied his childhood today.
A has spent his childhood years in Mumbai, has tons of friends who found him back, thanks to the social networking sites, while as per all of them, he had conveniently forgotten them. Stories of long cycle – rides, of building brick houses for stray pups, of stealing coins from mom’s purse to bring the pups some milk, of jumping on to grab fresh berries from trees during summer vacations, of unending hours moving about aimlessly and playing pranks on people of all ages and temperaments – it all came alive as this bunch of storyteller friends circled around me and kept going on and on. The film reeled in front of me as I shifted to a flashback movie like thing.
A week ago, when the news to my Mumbai Trip was broken out to A, he was definitely less gloomy compared to what it has been like in cases of my past work-trips. Why? He instantly started planning how I was supposed to spend my Sunday there! Though I only had a few hours, he came up with a long list of places he wanted me to see… his home, the play ground they never wanted to vacate, his school, his friends- young ones, old ones, remembered ones and forgotten ones…
While I was getting ready to step out of the hotel, I started feeling empty from within. I came to realize that while all thru the evening, everyone would be talking about him, A would be at least 1400 kilometers away, if not more.
The only way to reconcile with my heart was to sooth him by saying my eyes would still see him, jumping around in the park wearing that naughty smile on his face and with a mischievous mind. He could be running away from mom or hiding at a friend’s place so dad can never find him… so he could escape a beating!
While I went around to see all the places of his choice with his friend, he followed us virtually, with those flashback years reeling thru his mind…
Sweety.
