The sun beats down on two teenagers in school uniform. They are weighed down by heavy bags, their tread is slow. The girl has her hair tied into an untidy thick plait while the boy is tall and thin, with a gaunt face on which a few hairs have decided to set up base
The boy is 12. He’s proud of the facial hair and wishes it would grow faster, into a lush moustache and beard. If it doesn’t happen by the time he’s 18, he’s going to have lots of money and he’ll buy whatever make beards grow. He’ll have a bike too. And he’ll be massive, boom booming muscles that he can thump around. Yes!
If you ask him how turning 18 will bring about these changes, he’ll prove to you that despite his highly advanced years and wisdom, deep down, he believes in magic
The girl, all of 14, is shorter. She wishes she was taller. Taller than her brother at least. She’s slim, she wishes she was slimmer, she wants to be lissome. Nice word, lissome, bears repeating, over and over. She imagines lissome, something like a water nymph (female), draped over a creeper, like the illustrations in her Greek Mythology book. Only better dressed. But she can’t quite imagine a person matching a creeper. She tried to draw it and it didn’t work. She has reduced rice in her meals, maybe that’ll make her lissome.
Her belief in magic, umm, not so much but she won’t rule it out all together
Daddy’s changed, hasn’t he? the boy says. It’s not often he gets a chance to chat with his sister. Usually, Pari hangs around her neck and never leaves her alone. Talk softly, tell a secret and that kid hears. Call her for homework and she goes deaf.
His sister shrugs and squints at the ground. The evening sun makes long shadows but where shadow ends, it glints from the gaps between buildings, between trees, reminding of its presence. Ground dweller! Floor walker! Exult in my almightiness!
He tells his sister the sun’s thoughts, they share a laugh. A rare moment of sibling camarederie on the trudge home after school…
Bhaiyya talks…
It’s a miracle, actually. Daddy came home on Saturday. I went with Amma, to bring him. I didn’t reallllly want to go because, you know how Daddy always sees me and well, shouts… am I repeating myself?
But it’s true! He sees me and shouts
All the time
But Daddy wanted ME to come to the hospital for discharge. Not Didi, not Pari. I’m feeling good about that.
And guess what… Daddy actually smiled, at me. In the hospital
He asked Amma whether she was still planning to run to her sister’s house? And Amma said, I’m back for now. I’ll stay as long as you don’t shout or hit any of us. Not me, not the children.
Amma actually said that
Wow
Shocking!
Pari cribs that Amma keeps crying but considering what a big cry baby Pari is, she really can’t afford to talk. There’s a proverb. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at others. I wanted to tell Pari that but I’ll have to explain and she’ll cry some more. So, meh, I haven’t told her
But, what I’m saying is, Amma didn’t cry. She didn’t smile. She didn’t do her usual begging, scaredy cat style
She sat on the chair by his bed, and spoke.
Daddy nodded
In the cab Daddy talked about the food in hospital, the tests, the big list of medicines he has to take.
I don’t know whether it’s because of what Amma said, Daddy didn’t shout at me in the cab. I hadn’t done anything… still…
When getting out of the cab, I dropped his bag of clothes, for a moment he frowned, the old scary frown. My stomach constricted and I thought he would shout
He didn’t
I picked up the bag
Wow, he didn’t shout
Daddy didn’t shout, in the lift or after getting home
Wow!
Whoo!
I thought at lunch, he’d suddenly bring up how careless I was, how I couldn’t be trusted with…
But no
He didn’t shout!!
Some Magic Amma has done
Magic Amma
Rage carries weight
When we throw weight at children, we harm them.
When we throw it regularly, children fear the harm.
Stop throwing that weight, fear remains
And it will show up, bobbing its head up, again and again, unsure what it’s there for, unclear how to resolve itself
My book of short stories, The Violent Potter, is available on Amazon. The book is intended for an audience of parents, teachers and grandparents of young children
Link: http://tinyurl.com/466tvf5f
Each story highlights the gap between adult expectations and child perspective. The book is in two parts, Part 1 sees the impact of the gap while Part 2 sees what happens when someone fills the gap with loving perspective.
My vlog is updated every Friday: https://www.youtube.com/@violentpotter/videos