All of twelve years ,he was an adult.
All of twelve years,he was born an adult.
Whenever my daughter comes from Bangalore,she keeps aside a day to go shopping with me.This time also when she came here, we roamed the length and breadth of Usman road and finally,when we could not bear the heat anymore, that was reason enough for us to go to our favourite restaurant for some snacks.
I sat myself comfortably and looked around.Next to our table came and sat a family consisting of father,mother and their son.The parents were middle aged,that explained the way they fussed over their son, who must have been a little more or less than twelve years.
“Do you want masala dosa?”asked the mother in all earnestness.
“No” ,replied the son sullenly..
“Why don’t you have idiappam?You like idiyalppam,no?”asked the father with great affection.
Oh,no”whined the son.
“Ok,we will order some sweet”, so saying the father ordered some sweet item,I think it was Gulab Jamun.The boy had such an irritating facial expression.
The sweet arrived.The mother scooped out a spoonful of the sweet and solicitiously tried to feed her son.The much pampered son,shook away her hand and took the plate with the sweet on it and threw it on the ground.The glass plate broke,the water in the tumblers splashed all around and we at the nearby table were aghast!
On hearing the commotion at that table, the Manager of the hotel, who was also minding the cash box,came near with an angry look on his face..One look at the parents of the boy,his countenance changed,for they were a wealthy couple and one could easily detect it by looking at the rich clothes they wore and the jewellery that adorned them and also the casual stance that they took inspite of their son behaving in such an obnoxious manner.When the father offered to pay for the damages caused ,the manager said,”Oh no problem sir,after all he is a child you see.Children are always like that only,slightly mischievous.Don’t worry,we will take care of it”said he.
“Please get the place cleaned” said the father in an authoritative tone.
“Yes sir”,said the manager and called out for the cleaner boy.The cleaner boy, whose name I learnt later was Ramu came to that table carrying a pail of water, a mop and a duster.He cleaned their table,mopped the floor splashed with water, painstakingly and while he lifted the pail and started walking,he stumbled and would have fallen down but he somehow straightened up.But in that process, the pail with the water shook and some water splashed on the ground.
“Oh my God,he can’t even clean the floor,what type of boy is he”,so saying the father patted his fore head with his fingers.
The manager got wild wth the boy.”You swine,you cant even clean the floor properly!”So saying he gave the boy a solid slap on his cheek and as an after thought he also gave him a blow on his back.Sitting in the adjucant table and watching this human drama,my heart bled.I could not help my eyes from misting.But the boy Ramu, I am sad to say, had no emotion on his face.He silently stood up and carried the pail of water and the mop and walked away.
Ramu,head of a family consisting of his seven siblings,his father who had no job,his mother who was sick,has no time for emotions.Eventhough he is also hardly a twelve year old boy,he was born an adult.
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