Bala was anxious to get home. He was returning from his first trip away from parents and was so anxious to tell amma all about it.
Bala was in fifth standard, apple of his mother’s eye, average in studies, a bit below average in sports, but with a gentle heart that drew all his classmates and even many seniors to him naturally. His circle of friends was pretty big so to say and every cricket match, every school excursion, every gathering of debaters on topics ranging from the nagging social teacher to practical solutions for Indo-Pak problems, would include Bala. So it was one of these friends from a senior batch who decided that they would go on a tour to Kodaikanal for two days over a weekend. Bala of course was included in the plans by default and he too went along without worrying too much about how exactly he was going to convince his parents for this.
Father wouldn’t hear about it-“Bala, you can go anywhere when you a bit elder, not now. You can’t manage on your own for two days! I will take you to Tirupparankunram instead this weekend.”
It was his amma who helped him out here-“We can go to Tirupparankunram any day. Kodaikkanal is beautiful this time of the year and it is just 5 hours from here. Also you can give him your cellphone for the two days. I know Vignesh very well; he told me his father has arranged accommodation at his own guest house. How else will he learn to be independent?” His father shook his head observing Bala closely as if wondering how a kid so diminutive in size could be let go so far away from sight. But amma always had a way of reasoning with father which he could never refuse. And so it was decided after a lot of debate that Bala was to go to Kodaikkanal.
“Give him food for the journey and enough money to purchase a return ticket. Don’t put all the money in one pocket, he might lose it. Distribute it in the bag purse and shirt pocket and you, Bala, don’t go spending like crazy I want you to keep an account of how much you spend and where. Call me once you reach there and again call us in the night from the cellphone. Keep the cell safe in your pant pocket; don’t drop it from the top of the mountain!”-Father was now giving instructions to Amma and Bala as she packed three sets of dresses in two neat layers in his suitcase-his own suitcase-Bala felt such elation when his father gave him the black suitcase and said with a smile-“Keep this suitcase for yourself from now on wherever we go.”
“Don’t worry pa, Bala will be a good boy, wont you Bala?” she asked with the twinkle in her eyes that Bala loved so much!
“Of course amma!”
And off he went to the tour and now as the van was entering the foothills near the village called Vathalagundu, he felt the blast of hot air for the first time in the last two days! “Why cant the whole world be like Kodaikkanal, whoever asked God to make sunlight so hot!”
Slowly his thoughts wandered to the conversation with his amma that was going to take place in a few hours. He always enjoyed talking to her. Every time he told her something, she would really listen, comment at appropriate places and ask the right questions. He would never feel the day complete without telling her all the stories that happened in school. He often wondered how she always found his stories interesting while father either asked him questions that made him uncomfortable or was too tired from work to listen to him, but that’s what fathers are meant to do he told himself, work all day at office, take him out on weekends and decide on important matters. Amma was different though, she was meant to listen to his stories, feed him at the right time and plead with him when the curry was not one among his favorites and of course sing lullabies at night.
Now he was having an internal conversation with her in his mind, deciding on what things he would tell her. He cried both nights missing her lullabies, but he wouldn’t tell her that. Also he would let go the parts where he went boating on the lake in spite of father’s stern warnings not to do it. He visited so many places-he had noted down the names so he would remember later. Vignesh and other seniors, though almost ten years elder to him were so kind and helpful. The bathroom in the guest house was not that great though, maybe they didn’t use the pungent liquid amma used every week to clean them at home.
However there was one thing that he had to tell her, in fact that had happened just a few minutes before and he felt as though he would never forget it for a long time, at least not till he heard his mother’s reaction to it. “How could they do such a thing!”-he told himself.
On reaching home, Bala flung the suitcase over the sofa and went inside shouting “Amma, I’m home!”
Amma came rushing out of the kitchen and hugged him-“Oh baby, I was so worried about you all the time da kutty. How was the trip?”
“Great ma, I missed you though, so much that I cried in the night. Next time we will go together ma.”-in the hugs, fighting tears all along, Bala had let it slip, but he didn’t care now.
“So come first and have something to eat. You have become so lean in two days.” Bala couldn’t remember having been fat anytime to become lean now, but of course if Amma said it, he thought he must indeed have become leaner.
Now, happily settled in her lap while she fed him the small bits of Dosa dipped in coconut chutney, Bala regained his cheer and started on the stories. Amma listened to it, all the while making sure at least two pieces of Dosa went in with each story and adding Dosas to the plate almost magically without Bala knowing it.
“Amma something very bad happened when we were coming back. We were traveling in a big van like the one Somu uncle has, what do they call it?”
“Tata Sumo?”
“Yes, that was the one, initially we five people climbed into it and there was a small boy sitting in the backseat. The poor boy didn’t even have proper clothes to wear ma. Then as we were going along, the driver let more people in and now we were eight people. And now the driver tried telling something to the kid and then I realized that he was deaf and dumb ma. I felt so sad! Now the driver wanted to add one more passenger and he asked the boy to go outside and stand on the steps to the backseat holding the extra tire they have-what is that called?”
“Stepney?”
“Ha yes, he was hanging on the stepney ma, all the while when we were climbing down. It was so cold outside but the driver didn’t seem to be bothered about it. At every bend the boy let out a muffled scream, and one lady sitting next to me was actually laughing at it! Then came the worst part, there was a car following us and one guy from that car actually started waving and making signs to this boy who was hanging from a car at this height! And this boy was so excited and he was waving back and responding to it while the passengers of that car were laughing. How could they do it ma? I felt so bad; in fact all the while I was praying to Ganesha that he shouldn’t fall down. I just couldn’t do anything else ma…”-now he was almost on the verge of tears.
Even Amma was so moved she had almost stopped feeding Dosa.
“Its ok da kutty. Things like this do happen” she said finally. But Bala was not convinced. “Could I have done something ma?” She thought for a while and said-“Nothing da, you did the right thing praying for the kid”. But Bala persisted “Really?”
After a long pensive pause she said-“Maybe Bala you could have told the driver and Vignesh anna you will not come in the van if they didn’t let the boy inside. But you are a small boy now right? When you become bigger and stronger you can tell the driver that he is doing a wrong thing and make him get the boy inside.”
“Hmm…” Bala said “That is what even I thought ma, if I were a bigger boy I would have fought with the driver right there.”
“I know da kutty...”
Suddenly Bala’s face brightened-“You know what ma, the driver stopped the van for tea and snacks at Vathalagundu, and some people got off the car, so he let the boy in the backseat again. And I used up all my pocket money to buy chocolates and biscuits and gave them all to the boy ma.”
“That’s my sweet boy! How thoughtful of you!!” and she gave him the affectionate kiss on the cheek that he always yearned to earn from her and went into the kitchen to drop the dishes.
Bala sat lost in the warmth of the hug and kiss before he remembered something and off he went saying-“I am going out to play cricket now ma, Ravi will be waiting for me…”
