“But ma… I WANT to go” said Hari in an impatient angry
voice which was befitting to his 5 year old self.
His mother was not listening to him and was busy with
her chores. Hari was hankering since past one hour over this issue.
Everybody is going
why shouldn’t I go? I won’t be late. I will come back in time. I will be with
Sumit bhaiya all the time. I will be a good boy.. These were few
of his arguments to convince his mother to let him go with other kids of the
neighbourhood. But for some reason his mother was still not convinced.
Hari came and sat near his mother.
“Let me go ma. PLEASE?”
“I said NO. What will you do there?”
“I will just be with Sumit bhaiya. I won’t cause any
trouble or disturbance.”
“Hm. But what will you DO there?”
Hari was hesitant to answer the question. “I will look
at the lightings and the orchestra etc. Let me go na ma”
Hari’s mother knew the real intention behind Hari’s
persistence to go with the other kids. Somewhere she could understand it, but
her sense of self-esteem was too strong to let it happen. She did not gave the
permission, and due to her strict upbringing Hari could not muster the courage
to disobey her and go with the other kids.
Few days later Hari again started hankering his mother.
“Let me go this time ma. Please please please”.
“No”.
“That day Sumit bhaiya took others. They said it was so
beautiful. Big lightings, so many people, big band. It is really nice. I will
just go with them have a look and I will be back”.
“I said NO. Here, eat your lunch, I have to go after
that.” she pushed the dish towards Hari.
Hari in a momentary rage threw away the thaali, “I don’t
want to eat this food. In the ceremony there is so nice food. That day Sumit
bhaiya was saying there’s lots of food. Every type of food you can imagine,
every type of sweet, every type of fruit. I want to eat that food. I don’t want
to eat boiled potato and rice every day. I won’t eat it”.
Hari’s mother held him by his arm and slapped him 3-4
times, “You don’t want to eat this food? Here I am working day and night in
other people’s homes, cleaning their floors and utensils, just to make end
meet. And you won’t eat this food? Ask your drunkard father to stop wasting my
hard earned money maybe then you won’t have to scavenge garbage bins like Sumit
to eat that kind of food. Whatever we can afford we will eat that only. And if I
ever hear that you want to go with that waste fellow Sumit to scrimmage through
dustbins looking for left over from the marriages in our area, so help me god,
it will be the last thing you do. Understand? Do you understand??”
Hari started crying. His mother left his arm and went
out on her daily duty as house maid. Hari did not had lunch that day.
In the evening Hari was sitting outside their shanty.
He could hear the sound of Dj playing songs and the band welcoming the
baaraati. He imagined Sumit and other kids of the slum finding delicious left
over food from the garbage bin. He wanted to go with them but he was scared of
his mother. A Street dog was searching something in the nearby garbage dump.
Hari looked at the dog and said softly “Hurry up lucky fellow. If your mother
comes, you will be in trouble”.
Approximately 800 metres away from Hari’s shanty inside the marriage pandal someone was complaining that the naan was not well baked, the dal was bland. They were taking food and dumping it in dustbins, from there the food was being thrown in the garbage dump. Sumit and his fellow friends had a hearty meal that night, probably the last of this season.
