Thursday, May 12, 2011
I Want A Place In Your Heart
I threw my bag on the floor as I called out “I am back mom”. It took only a couple of seconds for my mother to find out that I lost my gold chain. She was about to freak out.
“Don’t freak out mom. I think I know where it is” I tried to calm her down a bit.
“What do you mean?” she yelled.
I gulped and said in a low voice, “I think it might be with the person who stole my shoe”.
A couple of days back I visited the Shiva temple with my mother. India and temples can imply only one mean joke-Missing shoes. But the weird thing was only one shoe of mine went missing. My mother thinks I didn’t look properly for the other. I explained her that “my dream guy” will get that shoe for me at right time and right moment. Of course my mother doesn’t believe in fairy tales.
“And how did you figure that out?” She asked again.
“It’s normal for my prince charming to take the chain as a remembrance token “I said dreamily.
My mother sighed. She was back in the kitchen as I switched on the tube. I was worried only for a couple of minutes before I got dissolved into the commercial being played. It was about a young man who scrambles in a railway station platform and looks around frantically for his wife. The presence and concern of the man puts the wife at ease and makes her feel safe and secure for now that he was there.
“It takes small things to make women happy. Right mom?”I looked towards the kitchen counter as I hugged my pillow.
“Yes beta. Just returning a chain will do”, my mother mocked.
I guessed she was still mad at me. “Oh my god!” I exclaimed suddenly “In few moments the clock will tick nine”; I grabbed my binoculars and rushed out.
”Ouch!” my brother and I said in unison as we bumped into each other.
“Good heavens. Be careful you two. What’s the hurry?” yelled my mother.
“It’s that boy mom”, he rubbed his forehead as he said; “He usually comes home by this time.”
“You like him only because he is cute. Girls are stupid. They forget their brains in their makeup kits”, he said as he tried to tighten an invisible screw on my head.
I pretended not to hear him. What do kids know about love? I looked from my window again. That “dream guy” will be there only for a minute to unlock his door and I can’t miss my turn. I waited the whole day for him. The boy disappeared into his house. That one moment took my breath away.
I wondered if he knew I was watching him. “What will you do if he stands in front of you?” my brother tapped on my head to get me back from my dream world.
I did not reply. He laughed “That’s right. You might be too shocked to answer”
I answered rather sincerely “I will ask for a place in his heart”.
He coughed. “Are you laughing?” I asked with a wrinkled nose.
“Of course not. I know you are serious.” he tried his best not to laugh but bursted out laughing. Why are brothers so annoying?
After three weeks “my dream guy” moved away. I didn’t know anything about him. I once saw him in a grocery store and was shocked to see him with another guy.
“I knew about his orientation.” my brother took another cookie from the jar as he said. We were in the kitchen. We were supposed to be helping my mother with dinner preparations.
“You knew about him?”I asked.
“It was an open secret. He was kicked out from his family because he was not normal .Poor bloke”, He munched some more cookies.
“Didn’t LGBT fight for their rights recently? Besides how can a mother not love his son?” I asked in astonishment. I imagined now-not-my-dream-guy say I want a place in your heart to his family members in tears.
“Leave him alone. He is happy with his life. Not every family is as broad minded like ours to accept abnormal people”, he split the last cookie into two as he said that. He is so kind, I thought.
“Hey wait a minute .I am normal!” I tried to take one piece from him.
“Sure. Normal people expect letters to turn up from Hogwarts” he teased as he ate both the pieces. I stared at him. “What?” he asked with a grin.
“Why were you born?”I asked. He gets on my nerves.
“God forgot to put brain in your head. He sent me with extra brains to guide you dumb head”, he stuck his tongue out as he ran, laughing at his poor joke.
”You are dead meat!” I yelled as I chased after him.
