We differ by

He turns back at a considerable distance from the house and takes a photograph of the same. A middle aged lady walks up to him.

“Take the keys. I’m thinking of selling the house. If you have anyone known, just lemme know.” said he.

Lady stared at him for a moment and asked with surprise “So Sir, are you never coming back?”

“May be, may not be.”

Way back from duty, a young man, say 32 or 33, pays a visit to his childhood home after a long time. On the courtyard, man is intercepted by a little boy running with a Snap Circuits kit.

Completely taken by surprise, man asks “Who the hell let you in kid & that too in my house?”

“It’s my home; mom says I’ve been living here since I was born”.

Kid’s confident reply shocked the man. Unwilling to get into an argument with someone who is even less than half of his age, man satisfies himself with the following thought:

May be he is the son of the lady I appointed for looking after my home, can clarify later on, but right now don’t just wanna break the belief and independence that the mom imposed on this tender mind-‘ the pleasure of being at own home’. Moreover if someone looks after my house all the while, what’s the harm in it?

Man: So boy, what’s up with the kit?

Boy: This kit consists of integrated circuits, photoresistors, switches, motors,etc. Right now, I’m concentrating on a musical doorbell.

With dropped jaws, he paused for a minute.

“So, you must be having a dream, a real big dream.” said he to the 7 year old.

“Absolutely right you are, I want to become a scientist.” replied the boy. “..unwrap the mysteries and discover the unknown.”

“Easy boy, take it easy, thinking out of the box is always good unless you just float off to somewhere leaving regrets behind; I suggest you to dream of something more practical and usual, rather gettable. You may keep a secondary dream too, just in case.”

“Why ,why not? Today, you are an army officer & that means in your childhood too you dreamt of becoming one & now you are certainly one, you did it, so why can’t I?

Man smiles at the boy’s statement. If only I could explain it to him – man thought to himself.

“It takes ages to build up a dream but a few minutes is enough to break it into pieces. I’ve seen many darker parts of life. I used to know a high wire artist who dreamt of becoming world famous, gain popularity and acclaim worldwide; unfortunately at a show he fell from a height of 48 ft and broke his legs on the spot. He always used to carry with him strait razors in his pocket. Out of embarrassment and shock, he slit his wrists with the razor immediately. He died on the way to hospital. Dreams can be dangerously obsessive at times. As a commoner you should dream of something you see in and around you…”

“No, never!! I can & I will.” said the boy.

Amidst all such arguments, the man feels tired and thirsty.

“Hey kid, bring me a glass of water.”

As kid leaves, sitting alone in the backyard he thought to himself:

Lucky are those who achieve what they dream or rather potentially wise enough are those who selectively aim a target in favour of their corresponding circumstances. Each one of us has a dream but what we end up with may not always be the one we’re looking for. The wise enough have their last laugh but the others satisfy themselves to laugh with time. Being young, we dream of something but as a grown up, our dreams shift, our thinking changes. As a child, I too had a dream, deep and incomplete, but chance brought me somewhere of which I had no idea even 5 years back. May be this is what life is; unpredictable; odds in favour; odds against. An army man! Don’t remember myself dreaming of becoming one. But chance brought me here today leaving back love miles behind. Where’s my mom, my dad? I wish I could travel back in time.

Man sighs with a deep breath.

20 minutes has elapsed since.

But where’s the boy? Should have come back way earlier. He thought to himself.

“Hey boy, you in there?” he shouted twice.

No answer came. Half a minute later, he heard the kid’s voice from the back door.

On his feet, man hurries off and enters the house through the back door. No one was there.

“You freak, why you would care about what I should become? Who the hell are you? If you have guts, then why don’t you just show yourself up to your mom?” Saying these, boy walks hurriedly into the drawing room. He follows the boy to the drawing space. In there, he saw no one.

From the behind bedroom, he heard the boy laugh. Seeing no one, just about to leave, something on the right wall of the bedroom caught his eyes: ‘A wall hanging photo frame of the boy wearing a gold medal.’ Beside the frame was a certificate stuck to the wall: ‘Well done to Naman Shaw for coming first in the 100m sprint race.’

Man gets puffed up a little, smiles and then unconsciously looks at the name patch of his army uniform. It read: ‘Naman Shaw’.

In a moment everything became still.

Naman walks out of the front door of the house. He turns back at a considerable distance from the house and takes a photograph of the same.

–END–