Social Short Story – The Cobbler’s ‘beta’
Photo credit: lisafanucchi from morguefile.com
The cobbler sat on the busy street side, his usual site for the past many years. When other cobblers wandered with their tools providing mobile services, he decided to stick to that site.
He was indeed hard working and did his work in the daylight hours. He bore the terrible summers, cold rains and chilling winters and was seen everyday from morning to evening at the same place. He used to think that people like him deserved fair praise as well fair price for their under rated craft, especially when he see young people reluctant to pay them even the reasonable rate. And they won’t even bother to mend their footwear once it is broken. ‘Throwing away and buying new’ culture was preferred to ‘fixing’ culture ! Changes of time!
He looked at his left side. An empty mat under an umbrella made his heart heavy. But then he smiled.
He didn’t remember when he had landed that busy place. He had no memories, as there were no moments in his life, worth remembering. He had just been a cobbler without any feelings or emotions until three years back, that was when ‘beta’ came into his life.
~~~
One fine morning three years back, he reached his workplace as usual and was busy settling there. It was then a small bamboo basket and a cloth bag caught his sight. A suspicion of the encroachment of ‘his’ territory threatened him. He has been surviving only because that chosen site. His existence had been questioned by the two ‘things’ and he waited for the owner of those to turn up.
Hours passed; none turned up. His curiosity cued him to check the cloth bag. He opened the cloth bag and saw some cloth pieces which were of no use to a grown –up. He checked the basket. And the sight shocked him.
It was a new-born baby, a boy, sleeping peacefully!
Without knowing what to do, he quickly closed the basket and sat near it, thinking. Though numbed, he needed to find a way.
He neither wanted to hand over the kid to some authority nor could he think about keeping it. He was single and lived in a hut in a slum like area. He didn’t have any one –family or friends. His secluded hut and reserved disposition didn’t give him the choice of neighbours. So if he took the baby, he didn’t have to answer to anyone but the thought of rearing one was something out of the question. He knew handing over the kid to police or so, would invite unnecessary problems. He didn’t want to leave the sleeping baby in that street too. And finally he clung to the idea of keeping the baby.
He took the basket with the babe and the cloth bag and left for his hut with an empty pocket.
Feeding the baby became the biggest question and how to take after the kid was the other big question. Not being used to all those activities, he somehow managed to keep the kid comfortable and clean. He himself was surprised about his baby caring skills. He enquired and found that someone at a distance has got a goat in their home and decided to approach them to give a small quantity of milk for the kid daily.
He told the owner of the goat that his sister, who lost her husband, had died during delivery and he needed to take care of the kid, as none else was around. The owner anyway never wanted any explanation on that matter. He wanted only the price for the small glass of goat milk provided daily to the cobbler.
The cobbler was struggling to make the two ends meet. He always wished and prayed for the health of the baby. There were many days when the cobbler slept with an empty stomach but he managed to feed the baby. He didn’t know what to name the baby and called him ‘beta’. Slowly a strong bond set up between the blank cobbler and the baby,which grew with each passing day. Though he was always sad about his inability to provide nutritive food, he gave his beta, protection from summers, rains and winters. He didn’t want his beta to get any disease, and luck showed mercy upon him and his beta.
Every day he took his beta to his workplace. When months passed the boy started making sounds, crawling and trying to stand up. With each step the cobbler’ s father heart felt more love, happiness and satisfaction. When he was about to turn three years, beta started playing quietly with some cheap toys he had bought for him. He looked ten times in every minute to his left side where the babe sat under an umbrella fixed by the cobbler, just to protect his beta.
One such afternoon when he was busy mending shoes, he heard an announcement moving in the street in a jeep. It was about the inauguration of a new school nearby. The thought of school filled him with agony. The boy was growing up and he was struggling. Though he wanted to give his beta education, he found no ray of hope on that.
Days passed. He was sitting in the same place with his beta on his left, busy fixing some sandals. He was looking down so carefully, that he didn’t notice six legs standing in front of him.
“Is that your son?”
A question made him raise his head and he saw three people, two men and a lady standing before him. He knew they were not to fix foot wears. Suddenly fear gripped him.
“Are these people related to my beta?” His mind startled.
He started sweating.
He didn’t want to part with the kid. The kid made him live, until then he was just existing. Though the kid’s arrival gave him added responsibilities, he had started enjoying them.
“Hey, can’t you hear, is that your son?” The man pointed to the kid and asked more sternly.
“Yes!! What do you want?” The fearful cobbler forgot humility.
“We are social workers. The government has started a school exclusively for the street children here. And all the children in the street are to be admitted to the school, where they will be given education, accommodation, nutritive food and guidance, quite freely. We came to enrol your son and take him there!” The lady explained.
The cobbler sighed in relief.
Everything except accommodation gave the cobbler some hope.
“My house is near; I can send him from there, so no need of accommodation!”
“Whether or not your home is near, the children are to be brought up in a nice environment. The best place is school and hostel. That is compulsory. Why did you take your son to this street? We think there is no one at your house to take care of him, isn’t it?”
“But, if you want to take him to hostel, then I am not sending him school!” The cobbler’s voice echoed his pangs.
“Every child who gets admitted to the school will have to stay there. Parents can visit them once in a month. They will learn good things, get good food, their health will be taken care of and additionally they will be imparted with artistic and technical skills, which may help them in future too. And know, this free education and facilities will be there from 1st standard to 12th standard. And, you say you are not sending your son?” The lady continued.
“Can you give good food or education or health care to your boy? You are a cobbler and we can guess, your earnings. What if something happens to your health and you are no more able to work? He will become another cobbler, right? And the worst, there are more chances for him to become a rowdy or pickpocketer or so! So you want that? You want your son to become another stray child?”
The cobbler’s answer to the questions paused were nothing, but silence.
His mind told sending the boy to the school was the best thing he could ever do.
Though ‘once in a month’ was too much for him, he was happy that he made a good choice. Partings are always painful, though beta didn’t have any problem. He didn’t even cry when he was taken by the social workers and the teachers whom the cobbler knew. But his eyes were full and he cried for the first time in his life, tears of parting and tears of joy too!
~~~
It has been a month since he parted with his beta. He still used to check his left side and the empty space under the umbrella irks his tear glands. Anyway, that day he smiled, for he was going to meet his beta the next day.
__END__
