Hey Folks I am working on a book of short stories..
I am thinking of taking your opinion about my stories.
Here is first one
I have named it “A day worth spending..”
It was getting quite routine life for me for some time. I thought of breaking the rut and doing something different. That day after office lunch, I took rest of the day off. And I walked with no agenda in mind. After walking for an hour, It dawned on me. My office desk must be piling with work and I am walking here aimlessly. What is wrong with me?
Before I could think any further, I saw group of school kids returning peacefully to a building. Very different set of school kids I must say. There was absolutely no noise about these kids. That’s strangest set of school kids I have seen. Their teacher was as boring as them. Middle aged woman with traces of tired life on her face all over, giving few instructions.
I was about to walk past, a kid just happened to fall. His hands searching the ground around him sure made me rethink my opinion about the whole thing.
So here I was standing outside of blind school on busy work day. I went inside after the group has entered and settled. Passage led to the principal s office, hall and garden. I skipped all of that. I went straight to the room on ground floor where the giggles were coming from. There were around seven kids sitting on their dorm beds and chatting happily.
I walked up to the group. They all smiled and greeted me with Hi. “How are you madam?” One of them asked. I said, “I am fine, but how did you know I am in the room.” We sense the movements and can definitely hear the footsteps.
I felt as if it was so obvious that I shouldn’t have even asked. One of them asked, “Did you see the craft I have made? It is there on the table.”
I checked it out. It was indeed very artistic. Something I was not able to come to the terms was, there can be some kids whose eye lids don’t even blink. I mean they were just covered permanently. It was such a painful sight. Yet there was this serene smile on this child’s face.
He said, “Do you know we have a celebration coming up?”I quizzed, “what is it about?”
Every time we get a new family member, we celebrate. There is a new kid coming to join us.
“Does your family visit you?”, I asked to the group. “
“Yeaaah..”, the bubbly group seemed to quiet down suddenly. One who seemed the oldest of all said, initially when a family brings their blind child, his family visits often. With time it starts fading. For some their family stop coming. For some they resorted to sending letter and some money.
“Hmm..”, I muttered. “What do you guys do after school?”, I tried to cheer up the group again. Their face radiated with full blown smiles. “We play, we learn music, we sing, we dance and then sleep”, came the pet reply.
“I plan to come next Sunday morning again. Do you guys want something for yourself? I will be very happy to get some gifts for you all.” I asked.
One of them said, “ Yes I want one gift. If you could come next Sunday after that too..”
I was sold to this child’s innocence and affection. A small six year old blind and almost orphan child doesn’t want me to bring any materialistic thing for him, just a pleasant, affectionate talk. And here I was frustrated in my well paying job and well settled life. Our vision can get so narrow sometimes, that we can’t even see the obvious treasures we have over others.
For those wondering if I ever went to that blind hostel again, it became my weekend ritual to spend Sunday morning with them for few years. After that I had to move to different city for new job.
