The Chicken Soup

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