She put the glass on the table and lit a cigarette...
She wasn't enjoying her drink at all...
Uff!!! Can't get over him she said as she inhaled a long snuff of smoke...
She had seen him stand in the corner of d party hall in tattered clothes unkept hair and an almost rag like piece of cloth
He held it in his hands like a carry sack in anticipation of tying up some food packet or half eaten morsels off the bin basket near the exit door...
He must have been around 10 years old...
It was her niece's first birthday party...
There was a lavish spread across various corners of the banquet serving international cuisine...
Then there was a candy floss man, a chocolate fountain, an ice cream truck and an enormously huge princess themed cake which was served by well trained waiters...
The party was in full swing with balloons tattoos return gifts puppet show n return gifts...
He stood there with just one feeling in his eyes... Hunger...
It did not matter if it was a deliacy or a stale bread...
He needed fuel for his tiny frame...
Before anyone would notice him to shoo him off the premises she noticed him...
Wondering how he could sneak fooling the security at the gate, she approached him with an urgency...
She could sense how hungry he was...
Half way through she thought of the futility of asking him his choice of cuisine...
First she thought of offering him a plate of whatever she could put in one...
But then where would he eat???
Then she thought of putting things in a polythene n handling him...
But how could she give him eveeything in a bag...
They had neither containers nor disposable plates...
So she quickly called him near a changing room near the banquet exit...
She asked him to sit there n wait for her.
She quickly piled on as much food she could in a plate n gave him...
He ate with haste and speed...
His teeth couldn't keep up with his hands n hence he swallowed much n gulped the cold drink to wash it down quickly...
He made noise while he ate and she could see as to how much a human can salivate while eating...
It must have been a long period of starvation...
He was clearly wanting to finish all but he couldn't...
She asked him if there was anything that he liked particularly for her to pack it for him to which he refused... It would get bad outside... We don't have a cold cupboard...he said...
To which she smiled...asked him of he went to school...
He said NO...there are some Didi's who come to teach us footpath kids once a month that's it... But we prefer to not waste time...
She asked him about what he did all day and also asked him about his parents...
I was found by a roadside dustbin here in this area by an old lady who kept me as a means of begging...
She died when I was young but I was looked after by the begger friends around...
Now I beg too... I wipe car windows n dashboard at times to ask for money...
I sleep with many homeless friends around...
Sometimes there is good money sometimes there is none...
He told in a neutral tone...
She was restless....
There was something in his green eyes that struck her, reminded her and moved her deeply...
He did not look like a roadside kid...
He looked like a blue blooded young lad dressed like a begger for a fancy dress competition...dressed to win...
Just that he was for real...
She ushered him out of the gate n joined the party...
She couldn't focus...she wasn't in her elements...
She kept thinking about those brilliant big green eyes...
And they reminded her about him...
And how they had met at an excursion back in highschool...
He was a local at the hill station and she was a tourist visiting his place for a few days on a highschool project...
An out grown teen that she was and a hot blooded rowdy guy that he was...hormones won over self control...they got busy after study hours...Both thought that it was a mistake
She came back to her city routine almost trying to forget all about him...
No she did not get pregnant neither did she run back to him...
Many boyfriends and a series of relationships later she realised that she never really forgot her first experience...
She kept remembering him throughout...
And today this young pre teen boy reminded her of her first...
Not in any sexual way but as to having doubts as to why was he abandoned?
Could he have been an illegitimate child of him born to a city girl like her and then abandoned???
Could he be his younger brother or maybe a lost close relative of his?
She felt like revisiting the hill station to search for him...
She felt like taking this young guy there to try to find possibilities of searching his roots...
Such stark similarity was rare...
She was shaken...
So she confessed this to her sister at her place as they opened the gifts post party that night...
They pondered over it for a while and let out a sigh...
They knew she wouldn't do anything that she thought she would...
She wouldn't even help the boy reach a shelter for homeless...
It was way to difficult and complicated...
She was too busy with her life profession and complexities to adhere to possibilities of giving life another chance to turn a new leaf...
Not for herself not for that young boy...
Why she didn't???
Well, that's her choice isn't it...?
She he and him were leading lives obviously oblivious to each other... Yet strung together like mismatched beads on a string that life was...
Some tales are just like that...and by the way...
#notsotinytales
- Prajakta Sathe.
She wasn't enjoying her drink at all...
Uff!!! Can't get over him she said as she inhaled a long snuff of smoke...
She had seen him stand in the corner of d party hall in tattered clothes unkept hair and an almost rag like piece of cloth
He held it in his hands like a carry sack in anticipation of tying up some food packet or half eaten morsels off the bin basket near the exit door...
He must have been around 10 years old...
It was her niece's first birthday party...
There was a lavish spread across various corners of the banquet serving international cuisine...
Then there was a candy floss man, a chocolate fountain, an ice cream truck and an enormously huge princess themed cake which was served by well trained waiters...
The party was in full swing with balloons tattoos return gifts puppet show n return gifts...
He stood there with just one feeling in his eyes... Hunger...
It did not matter if it was a deliacy or a stale bread...
He needed fuel for his tiny frame...
Before anyone would notice him to shoo him off the premises she noticed him...
Wondering how he could sneak fooling the security at the gate, she approached him with an urgency...
She could sense how hungry he was...
Half way through she thought of the futility of asking him his choice of cuisine...
First she thought of offering him a plate of whatever she could put in one...
But then where would he eat???
Then she thought of putting things in a polythene n handling him...
But how could she give him eveeything in a bag...
They had neither containers nor disposable plates...
So she quickly called him near a changing room near the banquet exit...
She asked him to sit there n wait for her.
She quickly piled on as much food she could in a plate n gave him...
He ate with haste and speed...
His teeth couldn't keep up with his hands n hence he swallowed much n gulped the cold drink to wash it down quickly...
He made noise while he ate and she could see as to how much a human can salivate while eating...
It must have been a long period of starvation...
He was clearly wanting to finish all but he couldn't...
She asked him if there was anything that he liked particularly for her to pack it for him to which he refused... It would get bad outside... We don't have a cold cupboard...he said...
To which she smiled...asked him of he went to school...
He said NO...there are some Didi's who come to teach us footpath kids once a month that's it... But we prefer to not waste time...
She asked him about what he did all day and also asked him about his parents...
I was found by a roadside dustbin here in this area by an old lady who kept me as a means of begging...
She died when I was young but I was looked after by the begger friends around...
Now I beg too... I wipe car windows n dashboard at times to ask for money...
I sleep with many homeless friends around...
Sometimes there is good money sometimes there is none...
He told in a neutral tone...
She was restless....
There was something in his green eyes that struck her, reminded her and moved her deeply...
He did not look like a roadside kid...
He looked like a blue blooded young lad dressed like a begger for a fancy dress competition...dressed to win...
Just that he was for real...
She ushered him out of the gate n joined the party...
She couldn't focus...she wasn't in her elements...
She kept thinking about those brilliant big green eyes...
And they reminded her about him...
And how they had met at an excursion back in highschool...
He was a local at the hill station and she was a tourist visiting his place for a few days on a highschool project...
An out grown teen that she was and a hot blooded rowdy guy that he was...hormones won over self control...they got busy after study hours...Both thought that it was a mistake
She came back to her city routine almost trying to forget all about him...
No she did not get pregnant neither did she run back to him...
Many boyfriends and a series of relationships later she realised that she never really forgot her first experience...
She kept remembering him throughout...
And today this young pre teen boy reminded her of her first...
Not in any sexual way but as to having doubts as to why was he abandoned?
Could he have been an illegitimate child of him born to a city girl like her and then abandoned???
Could he be his younger brother or maybe a lost close relative of his?
She felt like revisiting the hill station to search for him...
She felt like taking this young guy there to try to find possibilities of searching his roots...
Such stark similarity was rare...
She was shaken...
So she confessed this to her sister at her place as they opened the gifts post party that night...
They pondered over it for a while and let out a sigh...
They knew she wouldn't do anything that she thought she would...
She wouldn't even help the boy reach a shelter for homeless...
It was way to difficult and complicated...
She was too busy with her life profession and complexities to adhere to possibilities of giving life another chance to turn a new leaf...
Not for herself not for that young boy...
Why she didn't???
Well, that's her choice isn't it...?
She he and him were leading lives obviously oblivious to each other... Yet strung together like mismatched beads on a string that life was...
Some tales are just like that...and by the way...
#notsotinytales
- Prajakta Sathe.
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