The Gift

She found him playing around with the present,

“Perhaps it’s a car” he said

“Or is it something even better”, his excitement was evident.

There was something which she thought was familiar, but what? Her eyes kept on following the little one; her eye balls running after him, jumping with his strides, observing each of his movement in the sitting area.

It was his seventh birthday; he had waited since his sixth birthday for this very day, counting the days on his little fingers, striking off the days from the calendar. She tried drifting to those years; but still she couldn’t remember hers, though a faint imprint of her black, orange polka dotted frock lingered lost in her memory. Something in her tried to search the missing link connecting the two lives. Something which made her reflective, something which made her think and rethink all her decisions. All.

She thought about her marriage, her friends, everyone in and out of her. All these years flew by leaving an echoing yell. She was not able to trace back the time when she locked all her dreams and desires, to be lost and forgotten. She dreamt of being so much more, but yet she was nothing. She ended up here following others, curbing her impulses, taming her vices.

She was not sad, not in any worldly definitions did she fit in that category. All that she was thinking about every other thing she could have tried, every other choice she could have made , every other person she could have met, every other possibility of being someone else……

Her eyes still danced around with the little boy. He was still with all his presents. Though it was late but she was lost in her past, too engrossed to ask him to sleep.

Every person who had made an impact on her seemed to stand in front of her. For example, her so called best friend whom she had not met or contacted since her marriage (about 11 years ago), and her love-interest back then; should she have……

”No”, she shouted loudly, the child stopped and looked at his mother

“What ma?”

“Nothing “, she murmured

“Its time to sleep let me get you some milk”

As the reaction on the word “milk” followed, she again sailed back to the days when everything seemed possible, every star reachable every dream seemed so true! She thought about everything that turned into something different, everything which was left halfway, everything she did and everything she was forced to do differently….

Stirring the milk, she entered the sitting area; where the child was sitting confused as to which gift to open first. Then he quickly picked one of them, shook it and started guessing what exactly was inside it.

“Ahaa”

“A car, indeed”, he shouted excitedly

“Vroooommmm”

Soon he was busy tearing the paper apart, only to find it to be a showpiece with “To My Dearest Friend” inscribed on it. It was disappointing; he always hated such gifts which were supposed to be handed over to ma. He started with another and then the next and so on … As he continued with his struggle of guessing and anticipating, she stood there stirring and a faint smile touched her lips; an answer to all her questions was right in front of her .

2 June 2008