2005 – July 28 – 7:00 a.m. – Some bus stand, TN, India :
Screeeeeeeeech!! The bus came to a jolt at Tambaram and Vandhana got down, staring at her watch. 7:00 A.M. Plenty of time to grab a coffee and a quick breakfast too. She walked towards the nearby hotel. It was pretty decent. She ended up having a light breakfast. 7:20. Ample time to reach college from here. Half awake, she stepped out of the hotel to enjoy Chennai morning which was supposed to be less hot when compared to the rest of the day.
“Ka!! Mittai vaangikkonga ka! Mittai vaangikkonga ka!!”, was all that she heard, once she came out of the hotel. Absent-minded, Vandhana started observing the ‘mittaai’ and the puny little girl who sold the ‘mittaai’.
The girl looked like any other under-fed girl who sells something to earn her bread; dressed in rags with that desperate wait for a dawn in her life, evident in her eyes. The ‘mittaai’ was actually an assortment of some multi-colored, sugar-coated jeera packed into a plastic, yellow spherical container with a brown cap, which looked like a miniature version of Vandhana’s favorite flavor of ball ice-cream- butterscotch.
Probably, that was the reason why she chose to buy it that day.
“Evlo?”
“5 rupees ka”. Vandhana’s eyebrows curled slightly. So did her lips. Did she hear Rupees as against the usual rooba?
“Seri! 4 kudu!”
“Thank You ka.” With that, the remnant slumber vanished from her eyes. With a smile, she asked that puny little girl, “Padikriya?”
“Ama ka! Fourth Standard” She was beaming with pride.
“Un perenna?” “Uma!” She did not bother to ask the rest of the questions that were supposed to follow. Which school? What do you wanna be in future? The answers for all those questions were evident in that girl’s eyes. Very much!
When her mobile yelled 7:30, Vandhana quickly pulled off the twenty ‘rupees’ from her purse and abruptly left, not forgetting to turn around and wave a friendly bye to Uma.
Same day – 11:30 a.m.- Some college hostel, TN, India:
“Oh by the way girls”, Vandhana exclaimed to her roomies. The girls were back to their hostel rooms since the fourth hour was supposedly free for reasons that only God knows. “I bought these in the morning from roadside. I think it should be at the least edible”, said Vandhana pulling out the mittaais. “ I think that girl is studying. Our petty contribution for her studies”.
“Hmmm!!”, Nazreen, one of her roomies exclaimed, “ may be, you should make these petty contributions on our behalf everytime, you stop by there”.
“Heyyy!! Mazhai mazhai!!”, one of the girls outside was crying out loud.
And the four girls were on their feet to get their clothes that were drying in the open terrace. And none of them heard Vandhana murmur, “May be, I should”. Not even Vandhana did.
2 years and around 14 travels to and fro. With few more friends who knew Vandhana well enough, four grew to nine. Almost every time, Vandhana made it a point to get those mittaais and Uma grew so familiar with Vandhana akka. One fine January, Vandhana sensed that Uma’s face was giving a *glee* look, while she was buying those mittais. Time explains everything. Or so they say! April explained Vandhana that she had somehow contributed to Uma’s exam fees. What she was not aware of was the fact that little Uma had seen to it that she had ruled out the exam fees barricade for THAT year – one of the umpteen, pointless, yet (unfortunately enough) practical reasons that her parents were trying to furnish to prevent Uma from continuing her studies (which was a mere sixth standard as against the usual *Higher studies*). After that Vandhana somehow never saw Uma, but everytime, she looked at the empty, yellow, spherical container with a brown cap (which she did preserve), she remembered a girl who yearned to live
2013 – January 23rd – 12:00 P.M. – The hall of a simple 2BHK at Bangalore, India:
Vandhana knew that she was too young to complain and crib about life. The fear for future was just a passing cloud. So was the uncertainty about almost everything. She kept telling herself every other day. Someone once said that whenever you feel low, always remember that you were once a sperm that outsmarted the rest. Well! Vandhana could not be really sure about something that she did not know. But she could be sure of one thing – she had knowingly or unknowingly influenced someone’s life — very positively. She was staring at that empty, mitaai container, with a ray of hope that she had seen 7 years back in a puny little girl’s eyes. A smile spread across her face.
2031 – March 25th – 8:00 A.M. – In LA, at the headquarters of Cameron Enterprises that spoke volumes of Vandhana’s success as a real estate developer:
Vandhana’s subordinate had just returned from India, where they had just acquired a massive plot for Cameroon Enterprises’ next project. Apparently, everyone’s desk was filled with souvenirs from India and Vandhana’s had a box of some famous brand of Indian chocolates. She was getting ready for a conference with few venture capitalists. Hectic day! Still, she was smiling at that empty ‘mittaai’ container. Little did she notice that the plain container that she was holding was a less tempting version of the chocolates at her desk – Chocolates with some Indian ingredients and cream wrapped in crushed golden covers with a brown wrapper around, that made the chocolates look even more tempting. And that the brand name’s logo on the top of the wrapper was similar to a ring that never left Vandhana’s right hand.
8257 miles away, a successful entrepreneur who runs an Indian gift store, with its own specialized Desi gifts for foreigners to take back to their motherland (who once used to be a puny little girl) remembers that hand. almost everytime, with an elated sense of gratitude.
-Sindhu
