From My Memory Diary

should walk to the school bus stop.”

  “From tomorrow uncle, today we are very late.” I said while walking fast.

  “Amma, those puppies are always on the road, why they get up so early, when they don’t have to go to school”, Annu, said pointing towards two puppies playing on the road. I didn’t answer her.

  The visibility was very low, and may be because of that my daughter’s school bus was getting late.  Cold wind was blowing strongly.  “When will this winter go?  It is very cold.   I want to sleep more.” She said in a feeble voice, reflecting all her anguish in getting up in a cold morning without even completing her sleep.  I covered her ears properly by adjusting the cap; she crept into my shawl.   At last, the bus came, 15 minutes late.  She got into the bus and as usual turned back to look at me once again. 

   I rushed to home as I was 15-20 minutes behind in my morning schedule.  A little ahead on the road inside our Complex, I saw two small puppies, may be the same ones Annu was talking about.  I reached the spot, looked at them thinking to make them move away from the mid road.   To my shock, I realized that one of them is dead, and the other one is licking on the dead one’s face, again and again, trying its best to make open the closed eyes.  There was no wound on its body, may be some speeding vehicle just brushed away.  I made a call to the Security personnel and requested to make arrangements to remove its body.  I looked around, expecting to find the mother dog somewhere near.

   Soon, I saw the mother dog running near to the puppies.  It smelled the dead one repeatedly.  Finally, it laid down its hands near to it and sat down.  The other puppy came howling to its mother.  A sweeper came and picked up the dead puppy, put it in his cart and moved away.  They followed the cart to some distance.  The mother dog stopped and turned back, but the puppy was refusing to go back.  I saw it following its mother howling and looking back again and again, as if the dead one will open its eyes any time, get up, jump out of the cart and join them.....

  Her Best Friend

   I asked the driver to stop the auto.  I looked at the meter reading and asked “How much”.  He said “Madamji give me Rs.10/- more than the meter charges”.  I felt that is reasonable and agreed to pay the same.  I paid him the money and turned to take all the bags from the seat.  I was coming back home after office and picking my daughter Ann from her crèche.

   Ann said, “Uncleji, don’t spend too much money”.

   “Oh…Yes child, what are you telling!”  He turned back and looked at her amazingly.  The driver asked her, “how old are you?”

   “I am five plus.”  She said spontaneously.

   “But tell me, why you told me not to spend much”.

   “I told so, because, if you spend too much it will be finished soon.  That’s all.”

   He raised his eyes to me, “Madamji, the child is talking big things.  I am surprised, but why she said like this to me.”  He paused for a moment and continued. “She taught me a great lesson; I feel she opened my eyes.  I need to get out of some bad habits.  I want to make my children happy as much as I can”. 

  I saw a glow in his eyes, that of some determination. 

   We turned towards home. 

   I opened the house.  She asked “When Pappa will come?”

   “He will be a little late”.  I said.

   “Oh, many days he doesn’t finish his works fast.” She commented.

   “Can I watch TV for some time?”, I was expecting this as the next question.

   “No, my child, first you will change your dress, eat some thing.  Then I will help you to finish your home work.  After that, when I go to prepare the dinner, you can watch TV.  Yesterday you did the opposite and went to sleep very late and in the morning it was very difficult to make you get up and get ready.” 

   She agreed to my point.

   Soon, she changed her dress, showed me her school diary and was ready with the home work books.

   My mobile rang, it was my sister.  Annu came to talk to my sister’s son.  He is one year younger to her.  They were sharing their newly learnt poems over phone.  I took the phone from her and continued our talk for a few minutes.

   “Amma, I am hungry.  I feel like drinking milk”.

   “Ok. Wait for two minutes.” I said while moving to the kitchen.

   “The bournvita milk is ready”, I served it to her.

   “Amma, can I watch TV?  Whenever, I eat something, TV says, you eat with me.  I will show you Cartoons.”  She said looking at me. 

   “Amma, you know, after you, Pappa and Sreekruti (her ‘current’ best friend in school), TV is also my best friend.  She brings all my friends to make me enjoy.”  She continued. 

   I looked at her with a smile.  She was talking to me very seriously.

   I switched on the TV; selected ‘Catroon net work’ and there they are, her favourite “Tom and Jerry”!

  In flying colours….

   My eyes were fixed at the closed door.  Moments ticked by, I was quite nervous.  She had gone inside with full confidence.  Though, I knew that, she will face the situation comfortably, I was gripped with anxiety.  Inside the closed doors, my three and a half year daughter was attending the first interview of her life. 

   The school corridor was crowded with kids and their parents aspiring nursery admissions.  Anju was eagerly waiting for this day, to go to the ‘big’ school.  

   We had reached the school much ahead of time.  She started playing in the school garden.  I was after her for some time, then I let her enjoy and took a seat outside the office room.  I was observing her from there.

  It was a famous convent school of the town.  She saw the statue of Jesus Christ in the middle of the garden.  The next moment, I saw her standing there with folded hands and closed eyes.  She turned around looking for me.  I walked towards her, she came running to me.  She said “Amma, I want to tell something in your ear.”  I bend towards her, she whispered, “I liked this school very much, I want to study here, I was praying for that”.  I realized that her expectations are very high, when I thought of ‘how difficult is the school admission here’.  But I decided to encourage her, “Of course, you will study here”.  She was in high spirit.

   The children were asked to stand in a queue in the order of their reporting.  The interview was about to start. One teacher came out and said, “10 children will be called inside. Come in order”. Mothers who were standing in front of me were convincing their little ones to go inside, most of them were not willing. Then the teacher started giving chance to others, asking them to wait. Anju was the first one who came forward to go inside.  In fact, she was very curious to see, what was there inside.

   I felt, as if the time was not moving.  I saw many parents around me, making last minute preparations with their kids, by reminding them counting, alphabets, and rhymes.   This made me a little more worried, of course for the reason that I didn’t give any such special practice to my daughter.

   The door opened, Anju came out smiling, she had two toffees in her hand.  She said, “Amma, the other child was weeping inside, she didn’t stop crying even when ma’m gave us toffee.  Amma, this time I didn’t forget to say ‘thank you’ after taking the toffee.”  I smiled at her.

   I took her hands, and asked, “Tell me, what happened inside”.

   She started narrating enthusiastically.  I noticed she had already caught the attention of many parents.  “I recited ‘Jack & Jill’, ‘Machali jal ki rani’ for the ma’m.  She gave me a paper, pencil and crayons and asked me to draw something.  I draw a small house.”

    “Amma, ma’m asked me “What is your father?” I said, “He goes to office.”  She continued.   My husband looked at her proudly.  “Then, what else she asked?” I asked.

   “Amma, she asked about you also.  I said my mother does cooking, washing, she takes care of my little sister…”

   I was quite embarrassed, “you
said all these?” I looked around to see whether other parents, were still watching us.

   “Yes, then I said, she does all these, and she goes to office also.”  Anju stopped and raised her eyes to me.

  “Oh, very good answer. I am so proud of you”. I said. I was wondering how simply she explained the different roles of a mother very well”.

  I heard many parents making their kids to practice ‘My father is a Doctor, My mother is a teacher…’ after listening to our conversation.

  The next day I was there again, to find out the results.  My heart was beating loudly. Soon, I could locate her name in the list on the notice board.

   “Yes, she made it…” I conveyed the happy news to my husband over phone.

  She was sleeping….

  She was then three years old, going to a play school, which had day boarding facility also.  After the lunch, the kids used to sleep for 2-3 hrs.  So she was very fresh and active in the evening and always wanted to play till mid night.  By that time, I was totally exhausted, after the whole day’s work in the office and at home.

   One day, as usual she was not ready to go to the bed.  She was crying aloud, “I want to play more, no sleeping time now.”  I hold her to me, wiped her tears.  I took her in my hands and walked to the balcony.  She had stopped crying.  I told her, “If you sleep happily, without crying, a beautiful angel will come to you in your sleep”.  While I was describing the beauty of the angel, she lowered her