Innocence..

“Thank you Sethu Uncle!”, I shouted at the top of my voice, elation clearly visible in it. “Yayy”, I thought to myself as I gleefully walked out of the stationery shop. Everything had gone to plan, and now I would finally get to play with Umesh! I was so happy that I wanted to go to the temple first! I crossed the busy road filled with traffic, and started running on the footpath. A few metres in front of me, a huge pile of sand had been dumped. I doubled up my speed, climbed over the sand dune, and jumped!

As I was in mid-air, I felt like a free bird, my body thumping with excitement! I landed swiftly and continued along, tightly gripping the 5-rupee blue cutter which I had purchased in my hand. With delight, I ran towards my favourite god, Hanuman!

Like always, I had to stand outside the temple. But it didn’t matter to me, because I could see Hanuman’s face! So big and strong he was! I closed my eyes and told him sorry that I had stolen 5 rupees. Suddenly, Hanuman appeared in front of me and told me, “You are a bad boy”. But I was not a bad boy! So I told him, “I did it only for Umesh.” Hanuman told, “Next time you steal, I’ll stop talking to you”. “Pakka, I won’t do again! Prrrooommmiiiisssseeee”, I quickly told him. Hanuman laughed and told me I was his favourite child. I opened my eyes. Hanuman was the bestest ever! Looking at him, made me feel that he was better than even Chhota Bheem!

Giggling to myself, I went and sat under the Banyan tree next to the temple. After ensuring there was no hole in my shirt pocket, I put the cutter inside. Under the shade, I felt calm listening to the chirping of the birds, as I hummed to myself.

“Yayy”, I again thought to myself. Umesh and I would play together this evening! What fun! I loved Umesh more than anybody. He understood me, and his favourite god was also Hanuman! Even yesterday, he told me Hanuman was better than Chhota Bheem!

We were sitting in Umesh’s house and seeing POGO! I really liked his black sofa, so soft it was! And his new TV! My god! It is so big! I can sleep on it, we could play carrom on it also!

“Vijay, let’s play Hide and Seek, advertisement will still take 1 minute 22 seconds”, Umesh said.

“Okay!”, I replied with enthusiasm!

We ran up the marble stairs and entered Umesh’s room. His room was light blue in colour, and everywhere on the walls there were pictures of Sachin, Dravid, Pikachu, Charizard, Goku, Chota Bheem, the great Hanuman, Salman Khan and much more!

I wished I had a room! Like his!

We closed the curtains. “Odd or even”, Umesh asked!

“Even”, I said.

I put 3, and Umesh also put 3, but then he changed it to 4 seeing mine. Though I knew he was cheating, I didn’t tell him because he was my best friend.

“I won! I will hide, you seek,” he said.

“You’ll lose da, Umesh,” I said.

“We’ll see,” he said and waited for me to start the count. I went to the corner of the room, pressed my face to the wall, and covered my face with both my palms. I started counting loudly – “1,2,3...

..48,49,50”

“I’m coming”, I shouted!

Umesh’s room was so big that there were so many places to hide! I tiptoed across the room towards the bed first. Cautiously, I bent down and peeped below the bed, sure that Umesh was there.

But it was empty!

As I tried my best, I searched behind the curtain, under the study table, inside the attached bathroom, inside the games cupboard, on the second bunk of the bed, and inside the new TV-package box as well! Still I didn’t find him! I was tired!

Then I realised that I hadn’t checked his cupboard! Hah! I thought to myself, and walked over to the cupboard, almost tasting success! ‘Bah!’ I exclaimed and opened the door, but alas! It was empty! Umesh had cheated! He had gone out of the room!

Just when I was closing the door, something shining caught my eye! ‘Woah!’, I gasped! A big box of chocolates, silver and golden in colour, was present!

I had NEVER eaten a chocolate before! My eyes kept staring at the box. My stomach rumbled, but more than that, my mouth watered. I looked around. Nobody would come to know, and one chocolate would anyway not make much of a difference to Umesh! I snatched one golden chocolate from the box and closed the cupboard.

As I tore the wrapper and tasted the dark brown chocolate, I was stunned. It was so tasty! I had never before eaten such a thing, so I never knew that it could make me feel so good! It’s so yummy, I thought, as I liked the chocolate off my lips. It was so creamy and sweet. I didn’t feel like stopping at all. I had fallen in love with chocolates! I was so overjoyed and elated! Grinning, I was going to take another bite, when the door flew open. There stood Umesh’s father, Rajiv Uncle.

“What the -?” he exclaimed. “How dare you!” he roared as he took menacing steps towards me! I was never so scared in my life.

WHACK! Uncle slapped my left cheek, making the half-eaten chocolate fall on the white floor. My cheeks stung with never-before felt pain and my jaws felt heavier. Hot tear drops streamed down my cheeks. Seeing the tears, I don’t know what happened, but Uncle slapped me again, this time on the right.

I clenched my teeth, and had to control myself not to shout. I had never been in so much pain. I wiped the tears with my torn sleeve, and stood with my head bent, and my arms behind my back.

“Paapa, what happened?” Umesh asked, coming in running.

“Shhhhh! This son of a bastard, was stealing!” he said pointing at me. Uncle took one more step forward, bent down and looked right into my eyes!

“You scoundrel, I never liked you. Just because I allowed you to play with my son, you think you are one of us? Look at yourself – dirty feet, dirty clothes, dirty hair and now you showed us your dirty heart as well!” He spat at the ground.

Holding my chin with an iron-like grip, he shouted, “You are an Orphan. A bloody useless orphan.”

My sobs were uncontrollable now. Uncle dragged me downstairs, ignoring the pleas of Umesh and his mother. He pushed me out of the doorway. I fell on the cemented floor, scraping my knee.

“Blood and sweat, only when these two mix, you can become rich. Only then you can become like us”, he finished, shutting the huge polished door on my face, leaving me alone with my tears.

I suddenly came back to reality, as a crow disturbed my thoughts. With a determined expression, I set out towards Umesh’s house. Today I would become like them..

..I could see Umesh’s house. It was the biggest in the lane, unmistakable due to the huge lawn in front of it. Just before going to his house, I went inside the construction site adjacent to it.

It was lunch time, so nobody was there inside. I started running around the construction site, jumping, squatting, jogging, and doing any physical activity that exhausted me. Soon within minutes, I was sweating, and my clothes had become wet with sweat. Then I settled comfortably on a cement bag, and removed the cutter from my shirt pocket. As I opened the blade of the cutter, I knew that the pain I was going to feel would be worth it. With the only thought of playing with Umesh in my head, I began..

.. “Ting tong”, I rang the bell of Umesh’s house. Uncle was the one who opened the door. Looking at my face, he started shouting. “I told you not to come he-”

But he stopped midway. His eyes popped out. He was aghast. He fell down onto his knees. Umesh’s mother appeared behind him and with a gasp, she covered her mouth, as tears rolled down her cheeks!

I did not know why they were so shocked.

“Vijay! Why did you cut your hands?”, Uncle asked me, as he held my hands with his, observing the ten slits that I had made on each hand.

“Lakshmi, get the bandages, scissors, dettol and water fast! And tell Ratna to clean up the pool of blood here!”

As Uncle stared into my eyes, he asked me, “Why Vijay?”

I replied, “Uncle, yesterday you told me that only when both blood and sweat mix, I can become rich, only then I can become like Umesh. So I cut myself Uncle. I made blood and sweat mix. Now can I play with Umesh, Uncle?”

I was astonished to see tears in Uncle’s eyes, as he hugged me dearly. I wanted to ask why he was crying, but I let it go.

It pained a little bit when Uncle bandaged my arms, but I felt so happy! Finally nothing could stop me from playing with Umesh, my best friend!

“Go Vijay, go play beta, you are a beautiful child.”

“Thank you Uncle, and I’m sorry for eating his chocolate!”

“No beta, I am sorry. Here, have this one.” My eyes gleamed as Uncle gave me a huge chocolate, the biggest chocolate I had ever seen!

“Uncle, you are the bestest ever!”

Saying this, I turned around to go, but my curiosity got the better of me.

“Uncle, can I ask you something?”

“Sure beta”

“What does the word ‘Orphan’ mean, Uncle?”

Uncle appeared stunned. Then he came towards me and replied in a choked voice, “Orphan means.. The best child ever, beta.”

My joy had no bounds. I ran up the stairs, to Umesh’s room, to play!

Downstairs, Rajiv could hear Vijay singing, “I am an Orphan, yayy yayy, I am an Orphan..” Guilt welled up in him, for everything that he had done. And he cried silently. He cried, he cried, and stopped only when he felt like an Orphan.