~ The Act of Friendship ~

Manohar Lal  seems to be a name which makes one believe of historic times, but when I came to know about this name it was total oxymoron – I could not believe that my new found friend just standing in front of me was no more that 7-8 years of age!

Manohar just loiters around in the street whilst his mother and father are engrossed as a daily wager and struggling to earn as much during, the day so that the family does not sleep empty stomach in the night!

He has been given a key responsibility of taking care of his toddler sister – Nandini he calls her with affection. He is enormously protective of his young sister and always give her precedence in whatever task he does with her – be it being given a toy or a packet of biscuit or anything which he gets from his parents or people of society!

He is my morning friend as he is mostly awake early in the morning when I see his parents struggling to prepare early breakfast and lunch as during the day they are not fortunate enough to cook again – being daily wage laborer’s from Rajasthan, they need to finish their morning chores and rush to the building site – basement of which is their current home as of now. They live a nomadic life and are always on the move , wherever their owner takes a contract.

The other day we both were at our conversation best and to my utter surprise he started to oblige me with a ‘Thank-You’ – this gave me an encouragement to converse with this little toddler in the other language and I generally asked him the following

“Do you go to School”

‘Yes” he said with an enthusiastic affirmation.

“Which School” was my obvious second question to which he replied.

“Sarakari School”

Which Class do you study ?

He kept mum – I secretly presumed that this could be an over head transmission for this sweet friend of mine but quite soon my assumptions was put to rest and his answer came after much thinking

“IInd Class.”

Having given all the answers correctly and to the point, he deserved a pat on the back and also a small gift which he humbly accepted and again said ‘Thanks.”, the meeting thus ended on a happy note!

Nowadays, I see him happy roaming around on the streets along with his sister and making full use of the sunshine. Early in the morning that Manohar is awake as he starts to reprimand his sister for any wrong-doing she does in oblivion. The love and grandeur design of destiny has made them meet in this pane as brother and sister and all I can say in my silent blessing is that “May God always Bless them and they study well and become quite unlike their parents and thus break this vicious circle of poverty which the whole family is currently stuck in.”

The only sad part would be that this is an ephemeral 231friendship that I sowed as when the building next to mine would be completed, his parents would have to uproot and again would reconstruct their humble dwelling when marching orders come from the contractor , till then, I am always in company of a cute little being which I had to meet in this time of the year!