His soft, wavy hair fell over his forehead. He spoke haltingly, the words tumbling over each other, but he did so passionately.
He was standing at the intersection of the busy road, vehicles streaming from all directions.
He must have been looking at me, but when I caught his eye, he blinked away.
Maybe he made up his mind, and he stood a few paces behind me and my friend.
I turned and looked at him. He smiled,” Muhje paise nahi chahiye”.
‘Ask and it will be given to you’
“Toh kya chahiye?”, I asked. He pointed to a few notebooks in his hand. “Char subjects hai school mein, teen book chahiye har subject ke liye”.
I looked at my friend, who seemed moved but said he’d go with my intuition on whether the kid had a genuine need.
I considered the boy and gave it a thought…but only about which bookstore to go to.
‘Seek and you shall find’
We walked, navigating the traffic. He studied in a “gohmment” school in the 5th standard. His mother worked in a hotel near where they stayed and he didn’t have a father. His brother studied in the third standard, he said, sticking 3 proud fingers close to my face.
All his words were punctuated with vigorous nodding of the head and pointing of fingers. Every expression was honest and endearing.
We arrived at the bookstore and bought notebooks and a box of pencils for him. He’d taken a bus to get there, only knowing that he had to get notebooks. His childish mind saw no barrier to the achievement of his desire.
I asked why he chose to travel all the way from where he stayed. He didn’t want his mother to be ashamed, he said.
‘Knock and the door will be opened to you’
He clutched his new possessions close to his chest and promised to study well and grow up to be a good man.
I gave him my number.
I wouldn’t be too surprised if I heard from him, after many, many years.
And I wouldn’t be surprised at all, if I never did.
