Thoughts..

I wrote these thoughts on a different occassion. Anyway, on Amar's advise, I am posting this here so that I don't lose track of my write ups on a later stage. These are some of my childhood memories.

Festival time. I wore my new dress (green skirt and yellow top with a big golden button on the buckle), and went out with my friends. We used to visit all my friends' homes, and had sweets from there. With the maximum fuss and noise we could make, we moved along the road; me beaming in my new dress. The usual plan of action is to have sweets from one house, and that friend joins us to move to the next target and so on. From the gate of the 5th person, we called out for her. Her mom came out and told us that she was not coming that day. The noises subsided a bit, though it didn't stop. We asked why. She smiled and simply commented that she was a quarrelsome kid, and anyway invited us inside to have "payasam". Even after we entered the house, she didn't turn up. After much shouting from her mother, she came out wearing the oldest of her clothes. Her mom, again with a smile explained that her dad couldn't buy her a new dress. She was very sad and humiliated and she decided not to go out for the day. Choosing to wear the oldest of her dress was her way of protest. For the first time, I felt bad in my green dress.


I understood that, not having a new dress hurts, at times.

My mom had an acquaintance who used to visit our home so often. She was a jovial kind of person and I loved her visits very much. Her stories revolved around almost everything in our small place. She had a daughter of my age and she used to take my old clothes for her. In our place, English medium schools were not even heard of that time. All children studied in the same government primary school. And she happened to be my classmate. Later on, when she came wearing my old dress to school, my friends started asking me, "isn't it your dress?" I was not mature enough to understand the hurt feelings on the other end. Still, out of the embarrassment of admitting that we give away things (I don't still know why!) I used to deny the fact. After the first incident itself, she stopped wearing my dress.

Wearing other people's dress hurts, at times.

Children understand poverty in a different way from what elders do. But at some point, what we need to realise is, there are many things we can do to bring a smile on others.

"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do." - Helen Keller