Social Short Story – Unknowing the known!!!
Image© Anand Vishnu Prakash, YourStoryClub.com
I could manage to reach there at around 2:15 PM.
Outdoor sports and games were already started and I could clearly hear belly laughing roar of the children. Though, the so called ground was just a passage beside a very small and not a well maintained garden, still it was making an impression of a very big stadium. They started playing some local game that was created then and there only with own set of rules. Cannot name it but the children were supposed to drag the light weighted plastic balls by blowing up and drifting the air using a cardboard. Whoever pushes the ball this way first through the final line would be the winner. Almost every one was enjoying in a manner as if they have never played this before or MAY BE LIKE THEY WONT GET A CHANCE TO PLAY THIS AGAIN in their life. Children not participating were all over around us.
I took my corner with a friend and was clicking some snaps. Suddenly while moving back without knowing that a small girl was behind me, I unfortunately stepped my heavy healed shoes over her soft and soapy feet. I said sorry. I simply saw a sensation of the pain on her face. She did not scream at all but simply ran away from there. All this happened just in a few seconds.
But to share with you all, these few seconds of that visit, organized by my company to that girls orphanage would be unforgettable throughout my life. This would be so for the reason, for the wave of questions and thoughts that came in. I would have screamed like anything if someone would have stepped on my feet. I would have shouted “aaaaaaai ga”. I might even have cried a lot if I would have been of that age. Because I new “aai” is there to take care of my wounds, my pain. I knew “aai” might had applied some turmeric paste on my feet, even if it would have been no wound at all. I would have screamed for all these reasons, for I knew what my pain is, for there is someone soooooo dear who would take me out of this pain.
But you know what? That girl did not took out a single word out of her mouth. “Why?” was my thought. I still repeat the answers when I pass by that orphanage. The answers; she didnt know what a mother is, she didnt know how to react when it pains a lot. She didnt know that in the world outside her world of orphanage, everybody has got someone who would take care of their wounds. She didnt know, that when it hurts, you are supposed to scream and call your “aai” who would take you in her lap and would ask you “what happened my sweet baby, have you got hurt somewhere?”, she would say “dont worry, i would heal all your worries”, she would wipe your tears and you would be releived just with warmth of her soul.
That girl might be crying many such times but there is no one to wipe her tears or may be she dont get tears at all. She might not be knowing what to shout when crying. She dont have an “aai” to take care of her. There are no new dresses her “aai” would get her on Diwali, no crackers, no birthdays, no cakes, no picnics, no chocolates, no shoes, no slippers. Just the same old muddy frock.
No one to wash her clothes, no one to serve her extra bread, no one to see if she needs an extra blanket in winters, no one to see if the ceiling over her head is out flowing. No one would fight with other children when they beat you. No one to nurse her when she is having fever. There is no meaning even of “Crying” in her life. I kept on looking for her around but could not get a proper glimpse. I later tried to locate her in the snaps I took. It really hurts when I see her face in those photos. It hurts. No one out of the crores in this world is for her.
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