~ En Famille...~

The morning walks are no longer sultry and alone, I find many people with different contours of life. Kids who skip school and oldies that await their death, almost the entire gambit of life comes in front of me. People rushing to office and the unemployed sitting in a surprising calmness – the world is surely a place with all its tipsy topsy curve….

In a aloofness of all this I encountered three kids totally engrossed in their small world they were living in, happy they were ridding a rickshaw being driven by their elder sister ‘Rani’ – They turned out to be a shy but with a cute smile on their faces they somehow broke the silence.

“My name is Kavita and he is my younger brother ‘Sumit’, they laughed in tandem and were again adorned by shyness – I could decipher they are in their own world and would not communicate at ease with anyone who want to form a friendly bond with them. 

The magnitude of their happiness was touching the sky as they had got their father’s rickshaw to drive and play around – jumping around in it and pushing it to the fore was what made them unmindful of the surroundings around them. As I could not resist and wanted to talk to them, they started to drive fast and almost tried to avoid them – adamant that I was, I again asked “Kavita, don’t you guys go to school, now that schools are open in full swing!”.

She smiled at me first and answered in a low pitch tone, “Today, we have taken off as Papa and Mummy had to come to park for mowing overgrown shrubs and there was no one at home to take care of us, We usually go to school regularly.” She started to paddle fast in order to oblige the shout Sumit was making as he wanted to be ridden on  the Rickshaw fast and didn’t like to be stranded.

Sumit seems to be enjoying every moment and was a naughty child as it seems to be, the fact that was proven by his younger sister Kavita – “He is very naughty kid, hardly studies and doesn’t like to go to school, he wants to become a Gardner just like his father!” – I seem to have broken the shackles of silence with Kavita as he seems to talk to me with much less inhibitions now.

All three of them had a slice of innocence on their faces, certainly they were loving the ‘workplace’ of their father and mother – both were contractual gardeners in the Municipal park. The coolness of the shadows of trees were their playground and they were loving the ambience as they smiled and cheered. 

Suddenly their was a loud shout from their mother, as I gathered, the shout was a frantic call for ‘Breakfast’ which was going to be held under a bench placed under a tree – the coolness of air and the serenity would certainly add value and impose a challenge to such ambience across any restaurant in the city – As I walked passed, I realized the joyful nature of life this family was enjoying whilst just looking the other side of the fence, I could see a total chaos of speeding cars and Scooty’s aiming to surpass missing timelines….As they say, life has many pictures, the same held true today....