Reflection

Hari lived with parents. He was their only child. They lived in their small house on the outskirts of Calcutta since many years now. Hari was enrolled in a local school. His father worked for the port trust of Calcutta while his mother was a housewife. They had a normal life and Hari’s childhood was largely trouble free.

Hari was a quiet child. He had turned eight and still could not speak as clearly and at par for his age according to the doctors. Surprisingly, he would make a lot of noise when he was alone. This habit was first noticed when he had turned seven. He had never confessed that he was talking to someone specific, not even to his mother. No one knew the reson for this behavior, until one day, when his mother had secretly placed a voice recorder near his study table. An interesting conversation was recorded.

***

“Hi! Today you are late. I was just going to sleep,” Hari said.

“Well, I saw you studying in the hall with your mom and decided that I will come later.” This second voice seemed a bit unclear and hushed up. “So, how was the day? Is there anything that you could not complete? Can I see?”

“Today I completed everything. I was surprised myself! I did not make even a single mistake in my science homework.” Hari was sounding delighted at himself.

“That is good. Let me see.” Then there was a noise of fluttering of pages and a few hmmms and ohhhhhh. “Here is your first mistake. You have written that the hibiscus flower comes in red, orange and white colors. But, have you seen a pink, a dotted pink and white and magenta color hibiscus flower?” the second voice said.

“Wow! Have you? Could you take me there? My book mentions only three colors. So, I should write three colors, otherwise the teacher will cut my marks.” Hari said rather matter-of-factly.

“Oh come on! You should write what is right, no?” the other voice was impatient.

“You know what happened when last time you had told me that the bull frog was the most dangerous amphibian on planet earth as it can eat all insects and small frogs and I wrote in my homework?” Hari was sounding angry and sheepish. “Teacher read it loud in front of the whole class and every one laughed even though we know that we were right”

“Yes! That day, did we not see on Discovery channel that the bull frog can finish all the small frog species and eat away all the type of insects in its area? And it multiplies fast, can climb on cemented walls, grilled walls, trees. This is nothing as compared to the alligator or the crocodiles!” The other voice was excited, very unlike Hari. “But, you should have told this to your teacher.”

“I did and worse happened, all started laughing again. She said that the TV shows spiders as big as humans and it is not true and that she would complain to my mother to stop such foolish ideas entering into my head.” Hari sounded very sad.

“She did complain to my mother the next day and I got a scolding because of you.” Hari said suddenly in an angry tone, sobbing a little.

“Hey Hari, you know that Discovery will not show anything not true. Didn’t that fantastic program on stars help you score highest in the astronomy quiz last month?”

“Ya! You are right. The teacher does not know. Hey! You should go now. Mom may come anytime to check on me. Bye.” Hari said as he might have heard footsteps.

***

His mother listened to this conversation again and again and reveled on the fact that her son spoke flawless English, at par his age. She was very happy indeed. She never told Hari about any of this although she kept recording his secret conversations for some more days. She did not tell Hari’s father or his doctor about any of this and in fact she stopped taking him to visit the doctors after requesting them to let her take care of him on her own. Life went on and Hari was his usual self – absorbed in his own world.

***

Hari had now turned twelve a few days ago. They had a great party and Hari enjoyed it thoroughly. He had grown taller and a bit more confident while speaking to everyone. He had realized that he would have to talk to others as they expected of a normal boy. All were rather happy because of this gradual change.

One Sunday morning, when Hari was just awake and lay yawning lazily on his bed, his mother came to his room. He smiled weakly and gave her a warm hug. His mother did the same and stared at him for a minute or so.

“What’s the matter Mum?”

“Nothing dear! Isn’t it a great morning? Cool and cloudless. Sun shining on the dew drops on the tree leaves and a slight chilly wind blowing. Today is a great day for a confession.”

“Confession?” Hari exclaimed in slight amusement. “Mom! I am twelve. What kind of secrets can I have? Wait! Am I adopted? Or, did I have a twin brother who died when I was very young? Or, did Gonu tell you something about me and Sana. Believe me it is rubbish,” Hari said very sarcastically.

“WHAT! No,” his mother said and she was clearly taken aback.

“Oh I am so stupid! How many times I have heard, that my eyes look just like dad’s and my nose is just like yours and my hands are like that of dad’s. I cannot be adopted. But I could not know if I had a twin brother. And you did not hear the word ‘Sana’. It means nothing,” Hari looked mischievously at his mom.

“You naughty little brat,” Mom was surprised at his way of thinking and looked at him for another minute.

“Who is Darshan?” Mom’s question took him by surprise.

“How do you know about him?” he was very abashed and suddenly his eyes were bulging and his mouth was open for a moment and he looked like a small child who was caught stealing a ladu (a delicious Indian sweet) from the kitchen.

“I know a lot about him. But where is he now?”

“Mum, I was a child then. And did you tell anyone about him? People will think I am mad. Oh! How did you find out? I barely remember him now.”

“You should be thankful to him. You learnt a lot from him, didn’t you? You both discussed studies, TV, teachers, girls, and lots of things.”

“Mom, please tell me! How did you find out about him? Did I mumble while sleeping?” Hari was growing impatient.

“OK. I will confess that I bugged your room with a voice recorder when you were eight years old for about one year and if you would like to hear yourselves speak, you are invited, for today is the day that I am going to delete that data from my PC.” Mom said calmly.

Hari was speechless for sometime. He sat next to his mother and held her hands. His wet eyes told everything. “Thanks Ma for not telling anyone about this. I had decided not to tell anyone about Darshan, for I had promised him.”

“Do not worry dear. I never believed that you were in any kind of trouble. I think he is the same kid who had drowned when we lived in Faridabad. You two were great friends. You remember him still?” Mother caressed his cheek.

“I grew up with him Ma! He might be dead, which I know. But I still remember him. I do not know, but once my teacher mistook us for twins, for we had similar faces and similar hair styles. I would never forget about him. He was very kind and generous. You know Ma, once we were returning home from school licking ice cream candies. He saw a poor kid sitting on the pavement crying. He ran back to the ice cream store, took another ice candy and gave it to the child. I was telling him not to touch the dirty hands of that kid but he wiped that boy’s tears and gave him the ice cream. He said to me not to tell this to his mom! I said OK and we left for home.” Hari took a deep breath.

“This was on Friday and on Sunday he drowned in the River where he had gone for a weekend picnic. I could not even say goodbye.” Hari was looking very gloomy. “I knew how he would think on any matter and I always had him in my mind while speaking for him. Whenever I thought of him, I could always see him in the mirror. He has stayed with me as a great memory, a great friend and I always look forward to him.” Hari was very teary eyed when he said this.

“Am I mad? Do you think I am mad? Mom?”

“No! My dear boy, certainly not. You are a great kid. And what if you have a friend who is so close to you and so dear to you, but isn’t real! He is much better than those friends who teach you bad habits.” She was trying to soothe him. “And what about this ‘Sana’ word? My boy has a girl friend?” She said teasingly.

Hari was turning so red in his cheeks that he almost ran and stood in the window. “Come on Ma! Don’t tease me. She is beautiful, no doubt but not my girlfriend. I will tell you about her later.” He could barely speak as he gasped.

“Oh! Dear boy. You blush like a girl. How cute. I don’t believe you could not tell me about Darshan. Fine, I am going to delete the data from my PC. It is nice to know that you are OK with it.”

“What is for breakfast Ma? Sundays are special days and today you promised to me a cake!”

“Oh. Sorry dear, I almost forgot. OK. Give me an hour and the cake will be ready. You want chocolate or almonds, apricot?”

“Any of them will do. Give me a minute and I will be there to help you.” Hari rushed to the bath room and his mother tidied up the sheets.

“Forget about the sheets Ma! I will do it.” He said as he came out, “My cake please.” Hari pushed her towards the door.

“Yes. Yes. I am going. Come quick,” she said and looked at a photograph of Hari and Darshan which he had kept at his bedside. They indeed looked very similar. She wiped it clean and placed it back. Once again she looked across the room and went to the kitchen whispering, “God bless you both”.

***

THE END