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Sukumar Biswas

Drama

5.0  

Sukumar Biswas

Drama

The Tender Strings Of Life

The Tender Strings Of Life

14 mins
16.7K


It was late enough and Nandita felt very tired. She had just spent a hectic day in her office preparing for a very important case coming up for hearing the next day. On her way back home, she remembered that she left home early in the morning and did not have time to cook. The thought of cooking her dinner made her feel more tired.

As she stopped her car to get down for opening the main gate of her house, a small boy who sat on the footpath, got up and quickly unhooked the gate and opened it for the car to enter inside. Nandita did not like this unwanted help and was rather annoyed to find that a street child was squatting in front of her house. She however drove the car inside and came back to close the gate after parking her car. She found the gate already closed and the boy was back to his place on the footpath busy spreading a newspaper to lie on it.

“Hey, who're you? This isn't a place to sleep," she warned the boy.

The boy didn’t seem to hear. Nandita banged the gate. Still the boy didn’t move. She opened the gate and came in front of the boy. The boy stood up and looked at her blankly.

“Don’t you hear what I said? You can’t sleep here “- Nandita shouted. But the boy continued to look at her with eyes wide open. 'He might be deaf and dumb', she thought. ‘There’s no point in shouting at him'. She went inside the house and concentrated on her immediate task which was to cook her dinner.

Nandita, a lawyer by profession, can be described as, 'what-they-call' a self-made woman. Her law firm had already established a name in the legal circle of the city. She had a reputation for fighting Rights cases, sometimes with little or no fees on behalf of marginalised or wronged people. Her professional success was the only thing that kept her going in life. Otherwise, she always blamed herself as a looser. Her mother died while giving birth to her. Her marriage did not work. She left her alcoholic husband two years after marriage when in a drunken state, he kicked her in the belly which led to stillbirth of her child. Her father being unable to endure the series of misfortunes that struck on them, succumbed to a cerebral attack soon after she left her husband. Since then she was living life all by herself.

Sometimes she would wonder why she always came a cropper at every turning point of her life even after meticulously preparing for it. Life perhaps, always surprises you with events you never anticipated – tests you with problems you never prepared for.

When Nandita finished her cooking, she realised that she had made more chapatis than she usually eats. Involuntarily she had cooked dinner for two. Well, so be it. The poor boy must be starving. She took the food for the boy in a paper plate and came to the gate. The boy was lying under a lamppost and a lot of insects were flying around the light. She hesitated for a moment and then she let the boy come in and eat his food inside the covered verandah. While he ate, Nandita watched him and found a glint of happiness in his otherwise blank expressions.

Nandita did not let the boy sleep on the street. 'It’s rainy season – may pour anytime.’ She fetched a couple of old, faded bedsheets and gave it to the boy to sleep on the floor of the verandah. While she felt a pity for the boy, she also had a creeping fear in her mind. 'God knows who the boy is and what he might be up to!' She cautioned herself not to get carried away. The verandah was fully covered with grills and it had a grill door at the entrance. Nandita locked the grill door from outside before going to bed, besides ensuring that all entry and exit doors of her house were properly locked.

Lying on her bed, Nandita thought about her life. Had that awful incident not been there, her child would have been of same age as that of this boy. She wondered why she didn’t think of adopting a child for all these years. Perhaps, she still nurtured a hope of finding a suitable man who would ask her hand in marriage once again. But those hopes were fading fast. Sad reality was that there were very few people who in their ordinary frame of minds, would like to propose to a well-established, righteous woman who’s a lawyer by profession and also had a record of failed marriage once before.

Next morning Nandita woke up to the vigorous knocking at her bedroom window by the maid.

“What’s wrong with the bell? Isn’t it working?”- Nandita asked rubbing her eyes while she opened the door.

“Rang a few times, but there wasn’t any response. I never had to ring the bell twice since I'm working in this house. I was wondering what happened to Didi today. Then I found that someone is sleeping in the verandah. I got scared for you. So I ran to your bedroom window and knocked“- said the maid.

“Oh, I didn’t hear the bell. Last night I went to sleep very late.” Then she pointed at the verandah and said, “That poor boy was sleeping on the footpath in front of my house. I've given him shelter for the night”.

“Don’t do such things ever again, Didi. You never know what mischiefs even small boys can do nowadays. Who knows he may be part of a gang. You're living alone. You’ve to be very careful.”

The maid was right. She also heard about several cases where the gang used a small boy to gain access to the house of their victims. Yes, she must've to be very careful. But then again she thought that this boy is handicapped, unable to communicate and doesn’t look harmful at all. What harm can he bring to anyone! Anyway the night is over. The boy would be leaving this place now. No more time to waste on it. She had to focus her attention on the very important case that was coming up for hearing later that day.

“Do your cleaning fast, Latika. I've to leave for my office early today”- she said to the maid.

After having her bath and breakfast, when Nandita was about to leave, her eyes fell on the boy. The boy was standing there in the verandah holding the grills with the gloomy expression of a caged animal on his face. She felt apologetic for having forgotten the boy. She quickly went inside and bringing the key, unlocked the door and gestured to the boy to go away. The boy went up to the gate and opened it wide so that Nandita's car could pass. After the car crossed the gate, the boy closed the gate from outside. Realising that she didn’t give anything to the boy to eat for breakfast, she called the boy by waving her hand and gave him some money to buy food for himself.

The proceedings in the court went well for Nandita and at the end of it, she felt happy to have done her job well. She left her office early and went to a mall to buy some essentials. It was time for Diwali shopping and the mall was brimming with people. After finishing her buys when she was passing through the children’s section of the store, the thought of the boy came to her mind and she mulled over buying a dress for him as a Diwali gift. He would be so happy. But she remembered that she had told him to leave the place in the morning. He might have already left the place. ‘Where would I find him? The gift will go waste’, she thought. Yet the allure of seeing a joyful smile on the boy's otherwise blank face, made her buy a pair of dress for him.

Darkness was just setting in when she came near her house. Her eyes roamed here and there looking for the boy. But he was nowhere in sight. As she was getting down to open the gate, the boy came running from behind and opened the gate. Indefinably, Nandita felt a sigh of relief. She asked the boy to come inside as she entered the gate.

When Nandita showed him the new dresses, he looked at her in disbelief. Nandita said, “Yes, it’s for you” and nodded her head. The boy broke into a broad smile lighting up his face in joy.

“Don't touch it now. First you get yourself cleaned well.” She gave him a soap and a scrubber and showed him the common bathroom. Before going to the bathroom, the boy put his hand in the pocket and took out the money which she gave him in the morning and hand it over to her.

“Haven’t you eaten anything?” The boy gave a blank expression. “Oh boy!” she exclaimed. As the boy went to the bathroom to wash himself, she went to her kitchen to make a quick snacks for him. After a while, the boy appeared at the kitchen door with a shy face wearing one of his new dresses.

“Wow, you look so cute”. Nandita pinched his cheek. ‘The boy’s really adorable’ – she thought. He doesn’t look like a street child at all. Perhaps his parents had abandoned him for his being deaf-and-dumb. It surprised her that he didn’t have any of the features normally associated with a deaf-and-dumb person. His tongue, lips and other facial features were that of a normal person. Since all his relevant organs were normal who knows he might regain his hearing and voice someday. She decided that she would call him “Aakash” and would communicate with him verbally together with ordinary signs and gestures as she found that the boy wasn’t trained in the sign language for deaf.

That night Nandita let the boy sleep in one of the empty bedrooms that lied next to hers. She however, did not forget to lock his bedroom from outside.

As she lied on her bed that night, she toyed with the idea of adopting a child. She needed someone to provide a purpose to her life, someone to live for, someone to return home each day and care for – a companion in her otherwise solitary life. How about this boy, she thought, provided everything goes right, of course. He’s a special child but that didn’t matter to her. She hoped that his case was treatable and she wouldn’t mind to provide him the best treatment available for that. But first, she must go to police to inform them about the boy and to ask for verification of his antecedents. It might be possible that the boy had run away from home or an orphanage or from a correction centre. Or his name might be in the 'missing list' of police. As a lawyer she was aware of the difficulties of adopting a child but that could be sorted out later. She knew the SI of the local thana in her professional capacity and he would certainly help her. She kept on thinking about the boy and her plans on him as she lost her sleep that night. She realised that the boy had not only made inroads into her thoughts but occupied most of it.

Nandita had two consecutive holidays and she spent whole of her time with the boy. From playfully watering the plants in the garden to taking him on a joyride in the car, she did everything to make him comfortable and happy. The boy also helped her in the kitchen. He was particularly helpful in skinning potatoes and cutting vegetables. With him Nandita was able to talk small, petty, childish things after a long, long time and that pleased her no end. She talked to the boy almost incessantly and even told stories to him, knowing well that he won’t hear a word of it. Yet at times, she was surprised to notice that whenever she told stories, the boy seemed to be listening attentively.

Nandita did not forget to visit the local thana. While going for shopping alongwith the boy, she stopped by the thana to meet the SI. But the boy seeing policemen, vehemently pulled her hand to go back.

“Don't worry, they’re not going to harm you. They'll help us” she tried to convince him with signs and gestures. But the boy ran across the road and stopped only after going quite a distance. Nandita thought that the boy perhaps, had some unseemly experience with the police which is quite normal for a street child and that might be the reason for his fear of police. She didn’t want to put stress on the boy and decided that she would come to the thana with the pictures of the boy later alone.

In a couple of days, the boy became an integral part of Nandita's household. He began spending more time in Nandita’s bedroom than the one marked for him. Nandita by then got emotionally attached to the boy and started treating him like her own child. She even let him sleep in her own bed when he used to fall asleep while listening to the stories she told him. Unwittingly she let her guards fall off one by one and the boy gradually became privy to everything she had in the house. Nandita was however happy to have someone in the house and in her happiness, she even forgot to call on the SI as she decided earlier.

Nandita’s happiness was however, abruptly cut short. One day on a rainy evening when she returned home, she found that there was no one to open the gate. The boy should have been in the verandah as that was the only place she left unlocked for the boy. She looked here and there but the boy was nowhere to be found. When she found the main door of her house opened, she realised something bad has happened. She put on the lights and entered her bedroom. There was no sign of ransacking anywhere but every precious item including cash and jewellery disappeared from the place wherever they were kept. She realised that her house was neatly burgled.

She was enraged at herself that such a small kid could make a fool of her in such a way. Then she blamed her cursed life. She was destined to fail. Life would never be kind to her. She threw herself in the couch and sobbed as all the misfortunes of her life came rushing to her mind. Outside, heavy showers lashed the doors and windows of her house and water seeped in through the open door. She didn’t get up to close the door but in her despairing state of mind, rather wished the rain to pour as much as to flood her house so that she could drown herself in its lap. She didn’t know when her mind and body got fully exhausted and gave in to sleep.

Next morning the maid did not turn up so no one had awaken her. When she opened her eyes, it was quite late in the morning. Life has a peculiar way of healing. When one is reeling under a major blow, it throws up several minor pains and immediate concerns and in tending those, the intensity of the earlier pain diminishes and it recedes to the background. Nandita remembered that she had an important case to handle that day. She also had to report the theft to the police. Then she felt she was starving. But first she had to drain out the rainwater that swept her room last night. Slowly she started to pick up the bits and pieces of her shattered life.

When she was about to leave for office, the SI came calling on her.

“Good Morning, Ma’am. Was there any theft in your house yesterday?”

“Yes, but who informed?”

“The boy whom you provided shelter in your house”.

“Have you caught that deaf-and-dumb vermin?”

SI smiled, “You should rather thank him Ma'am. Taking cover of last night’s storm, the boy escaped from the den of the gang which burgled your house and came straight to the thana. On the basis of his information, we raided the den before dawn and nabbed the entire gang and recovered the stolen goods. And he’s no deaf-and-dumb, ma’am.”

“Why did he do that?”

“He said, you treated him like your son. He can’t see you hurt.” SI said again, “He's a brave boy. He knew that the gang would kill him if they found out. But still he came to the police.”

Nandita remained silent for a moment. Then said, “What're you doing with the boy?”

“He earlier ran away from an orphanage in the suburbs. Then he got into the hands of this gang who trained him in their trade. We’ll have to take him back to the orphanage.” Again he said, “You’ve changed the mind of a budding criminal by your love and affection. I appreciate that. You’re a good woman, ma’am”.

Nandita was baffled by the turn of events and didn’t know what to say. Inside her, she felt a sense of guilt for imagining awful things about the boy.

“Can I accompany the boy when you take him to the orphanage?” she asked.

“With pleasure, ma’am. We deal with bad people all the while. A good company will be a treat for us. But before that, please come to the thana for filing your complaint and taking delivery of your stolen goods”. SI then took leave of her.

After the SI had left, his words resonated in Nandita’s ears. ‘Was it a honest admiration or was he flirting with her' – she couldn’t be sure. But whatever it was, she felt good.

The sun was shining bright by then. A sunflower in her garden which somehow survived last night’s deluge, after steadying itself from the loss of a few stems and leaves, resumed its eternal journey of greeting the sun. Nandita’s eyes fell on it and new hopes filled her heart once again as she decided to embark on another journey in her life.


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