The girl I didn't forget

 

Yesterday, my friend and I decided to meet at Sayaji Dwar for some yummy snacks. For those who don’t know, Sayaji Dwar ( in Dewas) is like a local food joint where various stalls of street food serve their customers.

While I was waiting for him, I saw another girl standing nearby. Before you let your imaginations run wild, let me tell you that she was selling balloons there. “She must not be more than 10 years old” I thought. She was wearing a maroon hoodie jacket which was adequate to battle cold that day. She wore a salwar which didn’t quite reach her ankles- much like jogger jeans.

“One, two, three…Eleven” I counted her balloons. A bunch of 10 balloons in her left hand while one in her right hand. Each balloon was attached to a straw-like hollow, plastic stick. The stick of the balloon in her right had got detached. She immediately vexed to fix it. But since she was holding a bunch of balloons in her left hand, she was having some difficulty. She fixed it and continued to stand again.

While I was standing there, she glanced at me standing there, twice and she probably noticed me observing her. “Why is he looking at me” She must have thought. Her glance didn’t turn into observation like mine though! Maybe it's normal for her to see someone waiting there maybe not.

“What could she be thinking?” I thought. “Would she also be disappointed if she couldn’t sell any balloon today? Does she also get desperate if she doesn’t find a customer for a while? Aren’t her parents concerned about her safety? Maybe they thought that it's crowded here and hence safety is not a problem. Or maybe they may be somewhere nearby, selling toys or something.” I looked around to identify, but couldn’t find my suspect!

And then I thought "Can she become the Prime Minister (PM) of India someday like Modiji is?" Well, ideally why not? We are a democracy after all and all the kids have an equal probability of becoming PM someday. But do they?

If she succeeds in becoming PM then someday she would also tell the world that “while I was young, I used to sell balloons in Dewas!” and I would say- “yes, yes, I saw her back then”. But probably I will not remember or recognize her. After all, in all these years, I have passed by so many kids like her, how many do I, remember? Barely any. But now that I have written about her in a blog article here, maybe I will!

And then my friend arrived. We discussed and almost debated on what should we eat out of many options, proceeded to the stall, enjoyed and left. But that little girl somehow didn’t leave my mind…

- Pratik Badgujar

(I have tried to write this article in a little different style than my usual. Please comment below if you liked it or got disappointed. I will be waiting eagerly for your comment.)

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