I was travelling to Chennai by train and was engrossed in a book on Sherlock Homes‘s adventures. I was totally into it but just took a small peek outside through the window to find a little girl, wearing a violet frock running in the middle of no where. I could’t find anyone around for at least a mile’s radius.
She looked like typical village girl with muddy dress and messy hair. The violet frock reminded me of my frock that I used to wear at approximately at same age. It was my favourite one with huge flowers and I wore it lot many times in a week :)
I was probably in 4th or 5th std and stayed in Karnataka and used to visit my grandma’s place in Chennai during holidays. I got this new frock along during the next visit and ran around the whole street and boasted like any other little girl wearing a new dress and did all the giggling when people commented on it :D
The next day I was devastated to find that the frock which was put to dry near the well was gone in the morning. I could’t believe that it was gone! I searched for it all over and yes I did cry. All were puzzled as to why only that frock went missing as it was a very simple frock.
My grandma consoled me by saying it would have fallen into the well and during summer it will be visible with little water in the well. But the frock was clipped to the rope :( I came back home after the holidays without my frock. And I enquired about it each time I spoke to my grandma over phone or when my mom wrote to her. Hmm I did’t give up, during the next holidays I came and peeped into the well but did’t find any sign of that.
Even now, nearly 14 years later I remember the exact spot were my frock was last seen dangling in the rope.
Hmm so all these flashed in my mind when I saw that little girl and I wanted my frock back! I suddenly had a good laugh thinking that frock will not fit me now and this drew some attention from people around, I starred at the book and made it as though there was some joke ;)
The girl was long gone but my thoughts took a different turn. I thought how my life would have been if 14 years back, I was running around just like her (wearing my violet frock :D ) in a village born to a mother of 3 or 4 kids and father who is a farmer working in the near by fields for daily wages. Sounds weird but its possibility cant be neglected :D Being a girl, I really doubt if I would have gone to school. The things that matter to me now: my mobile, camera, dark chocolate ;) Australia, Bruce Willis, Ronan, Java.. would be something that I would not have cared about or rather not heard of!
That’s a like a life totally upside down! But on the other hand I would have enjoyed the early morning breeze daily near the fields, climbed trees with ease, drenched in rain along with cows and goats who would be my buddies, fought with my sisters and brothers for some locally made candy, roamed the whole place alone, spend nights outside the house starring the stars and walked around in pitch dark nights holding my mom’s hand, chased rats in the fields, played in hot sun without knowing what is tanning, stare at people who travel in the trains who would stare back at me, learn cooking in the chocking stove, run behind my dad while he is ploughing, meddle with his agricultural gadgets, get into marsh fields to find insects and worms, know the value of few notes that my dad would earn, know the whole history of each and every person living in that locality which would be my world.
Hmm by this time, I would have married some fellow with whom I would have played with and is some relative who had gone to school for few years, now owns a hut and works in different field. I would be spending my days with minimal and tiny expectations. Later some day, I would have got my daughter a violet coloured frock…
new
7 years ago
