Since living in this city, evenings are usually the time
when I am out strolling around streets trying to hunt down new places to shop for
grocery or something entertaining to pass the rest of my time with. Yesterday on my walk, I was window shopping at
a gift store. Outside this place, I happened to see this young boy, who must be
6-7 years of age, standing at a corner sipping water from a bottle hanging
around his neck. I guessed he had just finished his school as he was wearing a
school uniform and had a small Chota Bheem featured school bag. He was fair,
chubby and cute, like one of those kids you see in posters and wallpapers. He
looked like an extra pampered, lazy and fatso kid, who did nothing but watch CN
and eat as much as junk available, in his free time.
I guess he noticed me observing him, when I walked out of
the store he came towards me and with a sweet voice asked me if I could tell
him the directions to the Chicken Soup. At first I thought I heard wrong, and I
asked him where he wanted to go. He again muttered Chicken Soup or something.
With this I replied with a confused “What?” Annoyed by my reaction, he shouted
in an unbearable decibel limit, “Buddhu, you not know Chicken Soup.”
I have heard a lot of weird and fancy area and road names
in this city, but Chicken Soup sure did not sound like the name of any area. I
had no idea what this endearing little devil exactly wanted. This time I asked
him the typical questions one can ask a small kid standing alone on a busy
street,
“Where do you want to go, Beta? And where is your Mom?
What is your name?”
On this he looked towards a small general store and said,
“I want blue Lays first.”
“Tell me your name first.”
“My mom has told me not to tell my name to strangers.”
This really made me laugh. How innocent these kids are, this chap wouldn’t tell
me his name but would ask me to buy him Lays. It was ironical, but cute in a
way. I asked him to at least tell me what he was doing there alone.
He looked at me raising his eye brow and giving me a look
that I guess meant “Are you Mad” and said, “Arre Baba, I want Chicken Soup. Do
you know where Chicken Soup is?” I finally gave up and gave him a Cadbury I was
co-incidentally carrying in my bag. That was a small bribe that I thought would
help him speak up. But kids today are getting more corrupted than our politicians;
a small dairy milk would not even count as a part of a deal for them. This kid
was the same, he ate it all but did not speak a word except for either wanting
a Chicken Soup or going to Chicken Soup or somebody named Chicken Soup. I couldn’t
guess it till the end.
I asked him what was in his bag. He instantly
removed an art book to show me his proud collection of vague scenery drawings
and colored lines and shapes. Luckily, that art book had details like his name which
was Aditya and his house phone number. Without him knowing, I called on the
number and a lady was on line. I asked her if they were Aditya’s parents. This
lady, apparently his mother, sounded as if she had cried a lot, her tone was
very heavy, and she started bombarding me questions like ,”Who am I?”, “Did I
find Aditya”, etc, etc. After I gave her a brief of where and how I found her
Aditya, she seemed to have relaxed a little. She said she lived nearby and would
come near the gift shop in minutes.
Finally, in some time Aditya’s mother along with his
father were there. When his father asked him where did he go from school and that
they have been searching him for an hour now, he again replied the same “I
wanted go Chicken Soup.”
His father now had a smile on his worried face. His
expressions made me feel he knew what Aditya was talking about. Out of
curiosity, I asked him what was “Chicken Soup” exactly. He told me that the
previous day it was Aditya’s Grandmother’s birthday. She had asked her daughter
in law to make Chicken Soup for dinner, but due to some reasons The Chicken
Soup was not made. His grandmother did not complaint or get upset over it, but
Aditya knew she wanted Chicken Soup on her birthday. Aditya was very attached
to his grandmother, as both his parents were working; he was brought up by his
grandmother alone. Hence, this kid was wandering around streets for an hour
just so that he could bring his grandmother her favorite soup. He just wanted
to fulfill her birthday wishes.
Ignoring all the dangers he could have faced, what he did
was a very adorable gesture. I guess this is the relationship every grandchild
has with their grandparents. Grandparents are the ones who support us when nobody does, love us and care for us like nobody does and celebrate our births like nobody does. They are our best friends, our guide, our teacher and our inspiration. They are the most cherished, loved and missed relationship for everybody. And a 5 year old did prove it from his stupid yet loving act.
- By Anvi Mehta
