He is a guard at a major toy shop and has to keep an eagle eye on any of the fit items which are purchased and goes out of the toy store. All sort of buys are made in the store which is mostly full of customers of all walks of life – though majority of them get pulled by the crabby cries of kids who get enticed by the sheer world of the toys they see when they pass through the store.
Wearing a mask, our lonely figure stands on the entrance
of this store, sometimes having dived into his sea of thoughts - Our guard is a
parent to two daughters, a fact which he so vociferously tells the kids while
he smiles at them – he is the first focal point of attention for the kids
entering the toy store to the kids who
see him as the first man standing on the front of the shop –
A little gaze at him makes me
believe that he must have thought of buying these mimetic toys for his kids too or for that matter his
daughters after they knowing that their father works at a toy store, would
surely have demanded a surprise gift – an ever increasing demands of kids nowadays!
Standing there for almost 10 to 12 hours, he observes kids buying best of the toys which their parents can afford or may be not but get compelled to make the purchase no matter what.
What goes in the mind of Bhuvanji when he sees kids talking home toys of various shapes and sizes – many of which are too costly for him to buy with the salary he earns? – all sorts of thoughts came pouring down on me as I stood outside with him, as there were corona restrictions and thus the store management had taken a decision to limit the customers.
As time passed and seconds transformed
to minutes, I got to know more about him when I started to talk to him
regarding the footfall on the toy-store and also the store opening and closing
times. “Sir it is from 11:00 a.m to 9 p.m”, with that he starts to tell me that
the store is a favorite of kids and that many of the toys are damn cheap and
people buy loads of toys at one go!
As time passes and our guard
stands with rapt attention overlooking the mall crowd, a couple comes with
their young girl who is crying and looks bragging of his parent’s capacity to
buy her a doll displayed on the shelves!
As I observed, he loves to be playful with
kids and he grins when any toddler just sees him as the first point of contact
while entering the toy store.
As the kids came out and it was time for me to say a good bye in a hush hush tone, tomorrow again would be the same day for Bhuvanji – the job , the place remains the same but the faces of customers would change….
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