Decepting Moments

Susie looked at the jutka in front of her house.

"Susie, you go in this jutka today. You can go on the school bus tomorrow"

Susie's dad helped her to sit in the middle of the jutka. Excited, Susie looked around. 

It did not look old and shabby. The jutka looked new and decorated with colorful ribbons. 

Susie peeped outside the small window on the side of the jutka. The young jutka man was dressed neatly in a pure white dhoti and a white shirt.  His thick black hair was oiled and combed neatly. Neatly shaven and trimmed mustache he impressed her at the first look.

Susie compared her dad with that jutka man. Her father looked plain in his dim colored dhoti and the casual shirt. Susie's little heart silently compared both of them. 

The jutka stopped in front of a bungalow. The servant at the door opened the gate and two children walked to the jutka. The jutka man asked Susie to move to the front and helped them to sit comfortably in the middle of the jutka. In front of the two children, Susie now looked plain. She looked at her dull uniform and the bag she carried. 

The jutka man treated them with respect and ignored Susie. When they reached the school, he asked Susie to get down from the jutka, but helped the two children to carry their bags till their classroom. Puzzled by his behavior Susie walked to her class alone.

Every Wednesday evening there was a science club after the class hours. That day was Susie's turn. The teacher asked Susie to speak first on the given topic. Susie had to talk about photosynthesis. The teacher asked her to memorize a paragraph from the science book and explain it before the class.

Susie was able to tell the first two lines. She could not recollect more than that and so stand there without telling anything for the next three minutes. The teacher frowned at her; Susie returned to her place.

Wondering what will happen the next day, Susie walked to the school gate. The jutka man was waiting for her and he gave her a stern look.

"Why are you late?" He urged her to climb into the jutka. Susie had to squeeze into the space left for her at the rear end of the jutka. The return trip home was scary and she was relieved after some of the children got down at their homes.

 "Tomorrow you need not come. There is no place" Without waiting for her reply the jutka man left.

The little heart hurt felt numb with unknown pain. 

The next day the science teacher made Susie stand on the last bench for the whole day. It was a punishment for not reciting the experiment without any interruption. Susie with a numbed heart stood on the bench till lunch interval. The class teacher then asked her to sit down when the classes started after lunch.

"No one liked me" Everyone around her gave this impression and she distanced herself from the usual gossips and silly jokes. Instead, she turned towards books, and books became her best friends.

Yet, people did not stop poking at her. Once in awhile she received the comment "You look plain" even from unknown people. Susie's ears slowly learned to ignore such words and carry on with her routine work. When she entered the teens as any other young girl she also started to have colorful, vibrant dreams. Cheerful and happy, life looked beautiful for her. Yet, people judged her by her looks. 

"Susie, you look flat" Her friends giggled at her.

"Nothing here" Once one of her aunts pinched her on the hip and made the nasty comment. 

Apart from the sharp facial features, she looked skinny and her eyes reflected the pain of her heart. Susie left out from the crowd learned to live in her own dream world.

When Susie first caught the glance of Ram that showed interest, she was surprised. No one ever looked at her like that. 

Ram's eyes penetrated deep into her heart and pulled the strings of love. A heart that desperately wished for someone to love her, adore her, and respond to her yearnings.