It was just another day like always; waking up late, getting ready in hurry, and missing out her breakfast but daily catching the college bus in time (window sit of the bus is too good to avoid in the ride. Watching out the window provokes the thoughts to turn into actions. But, when the ride ends, thoughts vanish away. Reality strikes back that an assignment has to be submitted and basically she don’t have much time in hand.); sitting in library as all classrooms are booked for specific exams (Mid Terms) and her stomach crunches; she feels hungry.
In the library, looking around, batch of girls and boys flipping notes and discussing in their high altitude voice, not nervous about the exam but very confident about cheating and discussing who has what notes. She gets irritated. She waited for an hour to let crowd settle down in their respective classes as they have their Mid Terms going on.
Suddenly the thought of her childhood bugged her. Her conscious mind searches in her hardisk for saved memories. One of the data from her subconscious mind revealed: She used to stay in a hilly place. Sun shines over the distant mountain range. The climate was cool and pleasant. She was probably 2 or 3 yrs old. She don’t remember her age clearly.
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She is sleeping. Her sleep is getting a little thinner. Probably she is going to wake up after few minutes if she doesn’t lingers on bed and behave lazily. She stretches her little arms to feel her mother beside her to get more comfortable. She likes to sleep at the soft comforting muscles of her mother’s arm, hugging her with one hand on soft chubby motherly waist, putting one leg over her mother’s thighs, almost she is pushing against the softness of the skin and muscle of her mother’s body, adjusting her head in between biceps and armpit keeping her nose a little above the cozy environment to breathe and keeping in mind not to exhale the hot breathe on her mother’s skin to feel the same striking back on her nose and mouth.
But, she didn’t felt her mother beside her. She can’t understand why her mother left her alone on the bed. A frightening thought came into her mind – either her mother left her alone in the world or a thief has stolen her mom!
That innocent child dismissed those thoughts, sat straight on the bed concerned. That little brave creature looked around. She saw her father fast asleep. She didn’t thought of waking him up. Rather, she took the courage and went out to venture to find her mother. She looked in washroom, kitchen, dining room and hall, there wasn’t any human being to be seen anywhere apart from her father who is sleeping. She saw the door was open. She ran outside and looked. She got so angry and so angry that she couldn’t control it. Besides, she probably don’t understand the emotion of getting angry. For the first time she experienced it. She started crying. She was crying hard, unable to make herself understand and how to express her anger. She thought her mother betrayed her and went away.
She saw her mother spreading recently washed wet clothes and bed sheets over the wire tied to the nails on the courtyard one side walls and a bamboo fixed to the earth. Her mother looked at that little creature crying beside the door. Mother asked, “Why are you crying my dear baby? And how come you are awake so early in the morning? Go and sleep.” While her mother was saying this, she went to her mother to listen what she was saying. Mother lifted that cute little weighty child to her shoulders. She kissed her wet cheeks. Baby hugged her dear mother closed to her. She understood then that her mother hadn’t betrayed her. Neither she left her nor did any thief steal her. She was only doing her daily job. It was her who got awake at an irregular time according to her schedule which was to get up at 9-10am.
She relaxed hugging her mother tight. Mother carried her token of love to the bed. Little developing brain of that brave child of her age noticed, her dad was awake and made preparations for having a bath hurriedly to go to office. She smiled. Her father smiled back. Her mother laid her on the bed and kissed her. She fell asleep.
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Reality flashes in front of eyes! She gets back to do her assignments; if not with the best of skills (that she shows rarely) but at least she has to get passing marks.
