Celebrations

The alarm of the cell phone rang to life. She looked at the wall clock, it was already quarter to eleven and the time scheduled for the event was eleven. She realized how many times she must have put the alarm on snooze mode. She was still rubbing her sleepy eyes and the door bell rang; she went to open the door with a sleepy look. On the door was a lady in white saree with orange and green border.

“Happy Republic Day”, said the lady with a smile.

She smiled and replied, “Happy Republic day Aunty.”

She greeted her and invited her to wait inside her house while she gets ready. Hurriedly she got ready and left for the occasion.

“Kitna loge bhaiya”, She asked the auto rickshaw driver in hurry.

“Chalees rupeya madam”, replied the rickshaw puller. It’s a difficult task to get a rickshaw in Noida as one has to negotiate for the fare which may take several minutes. But nobody haggled for the fare as they were already late.

She had not been to this place before but has many a time met people from there, on different occasions. It was their love for her which was driving her to reach there as soon as possible.

Soon the rickshaw was crossing a village, narrow lanes, old buildings and so many people on the streets. Every eye was staring at them. It made them feel as if they must have come from a different planet. Soon the lanes got narrower and at one point, the rickshaw stopped.

“Isse aage nhi jaayenge madam ji, raasta bohut chota hai.”

The aunt asked her to get down and suggested that they walk the rest of the distance. The aunt fumbled with her hands inside the purse looking for money to pay the rickshaw wala. She immediately took some money out of her pocket, paid the rickshaw wala and told her not to bother as she was now a grown up and was earning.

They continued their journey walking through the narrow lanes. “Aur kitna dur jana hai”, she kept asking, like a child, every minute.

“Bas pohnch gaye”, the aunt replied patiently every time.

Soon they were standing in front of a building which looked like a three storey house with a huge gate. The aunt stepped in first through the gate and asked her to follow. She stepped in with curious eyes looking around all the time. They were in a huge verandah but there was no sign of any human existence. Thoughts ran through her mind as to how could this house be a school? But soon they heard several voices coming from a room. The smile was back on her face when they saw those beautiful children in maroon sweaters and grey skirts and pants practicing for their stage shows in that room.

The kids ran towards them, the moment they saw them coming.

“Good Morning Ma’am and Happy Republic Day”, together they shouted. She gave the biggest smile wishing them back.

She answered each and every question coming her way from those kids.

“Ma’am aapka naam kya hai”, someone asked.

“Aap aaj yahin rahoge”, another asked.

“Ma’am mera dance dekhoge naa aap….”, asked another.

Those were such innocent questions. Then she noticed a girl standing shying in one corner, youngest of them all, somewhere around 4years old. She took her in her arms and asked, “aapka naam kya hai?”

“Neha”, came the reply but from someone else. That cute girl was still shying away with her one thumb inside her mouth and the other hand holding that thumb.

Soon the teachers went out and arranged for the carpet and chairs. The stage was nothing but a portion of the floor left in between the carpet and chair arrangement.  Soon flag hosting was done with the National Anthem. Then the children arranged themselves on the carpet sitting in lines as if they had been taught since long how to be disciplined.

Group songs, dances, and poems were performed. The event was full of talents being shown by the children. Then a girl somewhere around 5 yrs old stood up and started sharing with everybody why Republic Day is celebrated. The speech was so clear. That girl must have practiced it for long, she thought. But the fluent English speech made her mesmerized.

She was surprised as she was not expecting such great talents from these children. She knows it’s weird but nobody can expect kids from slums to give such a great show of talent. These kids were no less than children from any good public school.

There was one more thing very strange about that school. Different age group students were studying in same class with age varying from 4 years to 12 years or may be more. But when she got to know the reason behind it, she felt so proud of the people who were running that school. These people used to go door to door and convince the parents to send their children to the school. Some got convinced and the others opted to keep them at home as they believed that they would not be able to afford further education and so it would be of no use to get kids into study at this stage too, it was better to get them to learn some work.

Even after the parents started sending the kids to school, they took it very leniently as for them studies were not so important. This reflected from the number of leaves taken from the school by the kids.

But still the total number of children in that school were 80; which was quite a good figure.

Soon the program was over. Children ran towards her to get photographs clicked with her. When everybody was getting their photographs clicked, Neha went up to her and put arms around her legs.

“Kya hua Neha?” She asked. Neha just smiled with those beautiful black eyes. She was always against the so called favoritism. But Neha made her break the rule and became her favorite. She took Neha in her arms and for the rest of the photo session she sat on her lap.

After the celebration ended, few kids stayed back to play with her. They surrounded her and said, “Ma’am please humare saath kabaddi khelo naa.” Kabaddi? She thought. How could she play Kabaddi with an injured knee and that too at the age of 26 years? She gave it another thought and said yes as she could not say no to those beautiful kids. So, the celebrations continued by playing kabaddi, hide n seek, reciting more poems, storytelling, singing songs and dancing along.

The more time she spent with them, the more closer she became. Neha was still sitting on her laps while others were involved in storytelling. One of the girls got up and said “Ma’am yeh jo Neha hai naa yeh meri behen hai.” They were 4 siblings of a hardworking couple. Their mother worked as a maid and the father was a rickshaw puller. All of them were studying in this school.

Soon she noticed that it was getting dark.

Now the time was to bid adieu to those lovely kids. The moment she was about to leave, the kids shouted, “ma’am Neha ro rhi hai!” she had never thought this would happen, she took Neha in her arms and for the first time Neha said something with tears in her eyes, “mujhe bhi aapke saath jaana hai.”  Her eyes became wet. She lovingly hugged Neha and promised her that she would come back very soon.

This was the best Republic Day she has ever witnessed.

Eyes

Every morning I used to wake up with a smile on my face,

The first thing I used to see was my mother’s beautiful face.

Then there were sceneries on my wall,

Beautiful landscape with so much of greenery and waterfall.

I could see little drops of dew on the leaves in my garden,

With so many flowers of different colors protected by a fence around as a warden.

In the centre of the garden there used to be seeds spread across,

As if a feast has been arranged for Parrots, pigeons, sparrows, crows, squirrel and beautiful peacocks.

There was no need to imagine what all was happening around,

I could see them enjoying the feast by sitting in a corner on the ground.

But one day everything suddenly changed

I regained consciousness in the hospital after 2 days.

I woke up and opened my eyes

But could not see anything apart from a very dark night.

The family took me home, I realized life is not going to be the same anymore.

I again woke up the next morning,

But could not see the beautiful face of my mother who came to wake me up.

I knew there is still a scenery on the wall,

But could not imagine how exactly was the landscape with waterfall.

I could hear the birds chirping in my garden  and could smell the fragrance of the flowers

But forgot which sound was of which bird and which fragrance was coming from what colored flower.

I still feel lucky to have got a chance in my past to see the beauty of nature,

As I can imagine the world with the sound, touch and fragrance.

But my heart is still dreaming to see that beautiful world again,

Hoping for a person to come and give me eyes and take away this pain.