FOREWORD. Every day the mother waves her neatly dressed,bathed,well-fed child a good-bye...the school bus slowly receeds away on the road to school.When the child is dropped home in the afternoon by the same school bus it becomes difficult for the same mother to identify the child as her own...:)...because of the single fact that the child has been subjected to the forces of nature.So during the 10-12 days of exams she tries to protect her child from the forces of nature by intervening with the car and herself in charge. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The car leaves kaliyagunj for raigunj,st.xaviers school, a distance of 20kms,with me accompanied by two examinees,Aditya(class3) and Soumil(class4).The car and the driver need no introduction,both non-descript,quietly doing what they are supposed to do...but the two boys need some attention of the reader. If Aditya occupies the front seat with a commanding hand at the dash-board mp3 player,belting out his favourite songs,the book remains open on his lap but not a single line is read instead looking out of the window maybe slightly doozing in the cool morning breeze....Soumil is alert and active,constantly talking with me,questioning every possible answer,reading and revising till perfection,with all his books and copies strewn on the back seat. Thus the two boys can be singularly termed as a coin with two sides,if sunny(Soumil) forms the head adi(Aditya)can be called the tail...:) Leaving them cucooned in their own worlds...i glance out of the window of the fast moving car.The highway is free and smooth.Fields of paddy pass by splashing a riot of all colours green.Suddenly...just beside the road my eye catches a cluster of red.As the car breezes past the spot i could just make out a large stone painted deep vermillion,a small bush with a red flag fluttering on top,a donation box with coins laying here and there and some flowers deposited near the red stone.Some by-standers had gathered too. Amazed at the sight...if this is today ...yesterday the stone was not there.On backward journey i slowed the speed of the car and observed the scenario closely.A single stone and a small shrub has been made to look like a shrine ..overnight...overnight a new god has been established...women were kneeling down in prayer,men were throwing coins!!! Ever next day i attended the drama unfolding to higher levels.The crowd of people gathering there was increasing,some cars and autos were stopping for the passengers to dis-embark and pay respect.Today i saw a priest holding puja at the shrine.I couldnt help but smile at the gods above(if there is any)...thinking that after a few months my car would be stopped here at the middle of the road for stone-god puja domnation by boys younger than my own son.:) * * * * * * * * * * * * * AFTERWORD I glance back at my boys in the car...my million dollar coin...safe and protected from the forces of nature ....what world will they step into when they finally step out of the car?????
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 09:41:29 +0000
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