He doesn’t talk. He looks tall and healthy. Dark. Never
smiled at me. We don’t talk. People in my street would talk. They would at
least say hello. It is a different matter that they all know me and my family. They say
hello to everyone. They are interested in knowing about everyone and
everything. If you are a stranger or new to the area, you better have answer and
time for all their questions. It is a bit strange for me to go to my regular
shop, still do not have ever spoken
to the shop owner. I do not know whether he has never spoken to
anyone or just to those kids who come to his shop to fill their ink pens. There
is that ink bottle just outside the counter in front of the tight row of big mittai (candy) bottles. Kept in a very convenient place for us the regulars. An ink filler by the
side too. I go there and look up. He turns inside and starts looking at his
books or something. I take my pen out, open it, and fill it with the blue ink
from the bottle. There it is, a little cloth thoughtfully kept by the side of
the bottle. I use the cloth to wipe the pen and my hands. I look up again. He
is still examining something inside his shop. I have to go as I am getting late to school. I start walking. My
head turned to look back. I saw his head looking out of his shop and looking at me
walking. I smile. He pulled his head back in. I smile again and walk fast. I am late
for the school assembly.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
I shall Try
I try. I try very hard. I am not a runner. I try hard. “Get
set go”…. And the whistle… I do not whizz off. I do run, but far behind all the
other contestants. I can see Radhika running in the front. Failure to run does not
make me sad. I was quiet. I stood on the sides for other rounds and other
sports. I watched them whizz past me. I asked the teacher if she wanted any
help in conducting the events. May be I can mark a tick against the name of the
contestant who has turned up. May be I can add the winning scores and give the
totals to the other teacher who is summing up the results. May be I can arrange
the lines and marks on the ground for the next sport. I was wondering. I was a little
sad when I didn’t win in the singing competition. I do believe I sing well. May
be that is my interest. May be I should properly learn to sing and become a
singer. I was wondering. There was this thing glaringly obvious that I get good
marks in all the exam papers. But how can you make it specific? Is it
geography, is it science, or is it …oh yes, I like maths and I do well too.
But, what about it? I do not know what can you be if you like maths or if you
do well in maths. May be I can become a maths teacher one day. I am not sure I
want to teach children. They misbehave a lot. I do too. I do not like to become
a teacher. Becoming a teacher is nothing about having liking for maths. That is
why I do not think scoring good marks in exams can make me anything. Singing
can make me a singer. But I cannot learn singing. My folks won’t let me learn
singing. And there is no one to teach me singing. Let us say I learn singing
and I sing a few songs. What then? Mmmm, good that I thought about it before
wasting my time on learning to sing!
I don’t know what would interest me. May be I can become an
engineer and build bridges. I will build the best and the famous bridge in the
world. I will have beautiful roses on the pavement. Yes, it is a good idea to
have a pavement where people can walk while the buses go in the middle of the
road. I will have beautiful roses in pots arranged in a row on the side walk.
There should be a tap for people to drink water when they go thirsty. And there
should be benches if anyone wants to have a sit down for a while. The dream opens up. It brings the bridge
closer and bigger. There are people on the pavement. Colourful roses in pots
too. The tap in the middle of the walk looks wet. Some elderly men like thatha
are having a sit down on the benches. It will be a wide bridge then. Then the
weight bearing should be strong then? That will be my challenge. I will be the
engineer behind a famous bridge which was built with strong weight bearing and
colourful roses in pots. That will be my goal. I shall try. I like that. I
shall try.
My walk back home had a spring in my step. Humming three full
songs took me home. “Aachi, have you got some rice for me”?
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