Healing Aura

This write-up was written by my 10 year old son and I felt that it was an engaging description. Here it is, and does it show, how situations impact childrens lives and help shape them as human beings!

They say “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” You could say that my best friend is just that. His name is Chirag. He has a big family, a big name and big dreams. We both dream about the same thing - cars! I hope we will someday act upon it and build a striving car company.

Now I am going to narrate to you all an incident which happened with me last year. Our class teacher Elaine John had taken the whole of 4th D to the area near the K.G. Park, where there were small rocking ducks and dolphins on which the K.G. & 1st standard students could enjoy themselves. We were playing the game - dog & the bone with a book. We all were enjoying ourselves.

Finally it was my turn to face a tall girl from the opposition. Her name was Shruti. As she was tall, she was easily at an advantage. I finally made my move. I tried to take the book and run away, but she was quite fast, fast enough to catch my collar and push me to the ground, snatching the book from my hands.

She ran to her team with her face lit up with joy and pride, whereas I lay there, tears rolling down my cheeks, as my knee was bleeding. Then suddenly someone wiped my tears off with his soft fingers and helped me stand. I realized that it was Chirag. He told me to jump a few times so that I could stop crying. He accompanied me to the Healthcare Centre under Elaine maam’s command. She then dealt with Shruti for her ruthless behaviour. Safely bandaged, I came back to the ground with Chirag.

Now I do not fear the world, because I have a friend like Chirag with me, who would assist me, would help me in good and bad times. A friend indeed!

——– Yash S. Kanyalkar ——–

I sat in the terrace and watched

A football match in the garden

Two boys teams short of quorum

But full of zeal for their mission

Rain beating down their shoulders

The green of the dewy grass fresh

The brown of grime and agile limbs

Excitement is what teens search

New graceful entrants emerge

Girls wary and shy at first

But independence and confidence

Propelling them to prove their worth

The match takes on a new meaning

The goals with aplomb achieved

The boys play their game, preening

The girls already sure to succeed

As parents observe, exchange smiles

Looking an avoidable storm in the eyes

Very soon thunderstorms and lightning

Will herald the age of moods and sighs

There was that kid once again. She saw him time and again, leaving for school with his mom, bang when she left for work. A lovable, adorable and innocent face! Fair of color, blue-gray of eyes, average height of a nine-year old (must be as old as her son, sure was the same height) and lots of latent energy kept in check!! Well, not kept in check by the child himself, but no doubt through the constant instructions, and jabbering the mother subjected him to every morning. Come to think of it, whenever the child was with the mom, she constantly kept going on and on at him. Poor thing!!

They stayed in the same housing colony as her, in building number 18. The mother was a trained Ayurvedic doctor, it seems – hearsay from other colony members. She had never interacted with the boy’s mother - more so because she was a working mom herself, had a joint family and a son to take care of! The boy’s father was absent – was the lady divorced or separated or did the father work overseas (in that case, she would at least have seen him once a year, when home on holiday). Whatever!! What does it matter to her?

Most of the times, the boy was rebellious, irritating his mom all the more. She was frustrated most often than not, what with the responsibility of earning a livelihood, raising a young boy full of energy and having nobody to share her load. Life could be so hard, even when you had all the support in the world. The lady, who took care of the boy, when his mom went to work, vouched that the child was well-behaved and mild. Why did the mother bring out the worst in him?

Last evening, she had gone out with her husband to get the monthly groceries. She had already seen the boy playing in the foyer, even before her husband stopped the bike. What was it about the child, which seemed to pull at her heart?? She got down from the bike, her eyes never leaving the boy. And his blue-gray eyes, she was not surprised to find, never leaving her husband!! Oh the longing, which she saw there!! Longing for someone, who was not there, envy, that her son had, what he could never have – a father-figure, someone to have a man-to-man talk with, someone to soothe and calm his weary mom, someone to fight on his side, when mom held him responsible for everything, that was going wrong in their life!! Thank God, her husband did not look into the child’s eyes, one smile from him (as was his habit) would have had the child weeping, so potent were his feelings.

She was scared, that the child would shift his gaze to her and know, that she knew. She hurried inside the building, but the blue-gray unfathomable eyes would remain with her forever!!