And I lay there...........

And….I lay there…………..

“Chalo Chalo Ho Gayaa…!! pack it up and move it”…..said the dark skinned worker to the packer…….

And there I was….. craftily hemmed, colorfully printed, nicely ironed and artfully wrapped up with a tinge of that scent ,with many alike “colleagues” lined up before me, which made the whole factory aromatic.

Oh!! How nice I felt, how thankful I meant to that dark skinned worker, how grateful I felt to that stout looking vendor…………… who had bought me from the supplier…………. who had taken the burden of bringing me from the factory to the vendor’s shopAhhhh…….how he was bargaining with him!!!! “Am I that important?”…..was the question that firstly came to my mind after my birth!!! ……Oh!!How proud it made me……..He,the vendor had kept us in a nice decorated rack ,so that we, the whole bunch could look attractive………..and hence was attracted Hema.

Hema, a young girl from the suburbs, who had come with her mother to shop. “Mama, lets take this one…..” this she said to her mother pointing us.

“How much does this cost??”

“40 rupees for the bunch, ma’am”

And there we were in their bag and don’t know between what not…..fruits….grocery….etc..

It was rainy season ….the month of August and was cloudy outside and started raining the minute we left the shop. It was a bit painful to leave the shop……but I enjoyed the new place.

Here too….I was kept in an almirah along many clothes.

Hema, had a younger brother Harish who was a cricketer….a naughty fellow though….Ah…the way these siblings fought for me the very next morning……

“Mama….please let me take one hand key from which you bought yesterday…please…..” he cried.

“No!!I’am not going to give him even one Mama...He has three already but he wants the new ones….they are mine…he doesn’t even wash them…..Mama has bought it for me Harish…..you’ll not get them…..”

“No, I want it”

“No”

“Yes”

“Huh!!No”

“Yes!!……………..Im getting late for my match!!!”

“Hema……now common ..give it to him….he is younger to you beta….”

“You dare not spoil them….” Said Hema

Harish took me …as I lay first in the whole bunch…..to the ground….and then ………………………..it started……the stinking sweat….got over my whole body …….ahhhhh….the dirt with which he wiped his pants with me…….it was atrocious.

And after toiling for half a day I returned home ……fortunately…..and that rascal just threw me on the floor……..Lucky me ….the mother picked me up.

“Look!! How you have thrown the hand key on the floor…Harish”

“Soorry Mama…Im tired and sad…..we lost…..”

“Huh!! As usual Mama……I don’t even remember the day when his team didn’t lose…hahahhaha”……… “Okay!Shut Up now…Hema…”.

Thankfully ….…their kind mother had washed me properly ,ironed and kept me in the almirah…oh…how I missed the dark worker!!!!

“Mama….Im getting late for college…..” saying this she grabbed me from the rack the next morningand started for college.As it had rained for the past two days …she was suffering from cold.

There lay something more worse than yesterday’s experience…….

“Haaaachchooooo”and then the liquid….. don’t know what it was…. started thickening on me……yuck…..I felt….. ohhh…but.its going to get over once I go home…..

“Haaachhooooo”

“Haaaacchoooooo”

“Haaaccchoooooo”

God save me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!….I don’t know why she never leaves me from those clutches of her fingers….but I was ready for it……anxiously waiting to reach home…

Hema was already late for the bus, which she had to catch, to return home.She was literally running on the footpaths…..

….thud………. all her books fell down……yes…me too……..She saw the bus coming from far away……she wasn’t yet done….she was searching for something….I lay behind her ……..shouting.to take me back……Alas she couldn’t hear me…..

“Ah!!there” she said…she picked up her 10 rupee note and ran to catch the bus…..wait…….I cried but in vain…….stop..don’t go……please………I yelled but no answer………..vroooooooooooom…..the bus shouted and took Hema away…..

And I lay there waiting for her…………the girl who was attracted by the mere look of mine…went away……and I lay there…….waiting for her brother……. who had fought with everyone in the house to take me…………but he dint come………..and I lay there………..calling and waiting for the mother who insisted her kids to keep me clean……….no reply……….and I lay there…………..waiting for the stout shop vendor who had bargained with the supplier to buy me……ahhh how people forget us…..I thought………I lay there waiting anxiously for the dark skinned worker who gave me birth………none came……and I waited and waited and waited………

Fortunately….well I thought so…..the wind came and blew ….and took me with it .I flew and flew……………but aghast….I fell into a gutter…………yuck how it reminded me the sweat…the liquid--the stingy one…..yuck…..please help me out… anyone…I cried but in no vain…………..ouch……it were those obstinate rodents ..those big rats who chewed me until they came to know that I was unfit and useless to eat……..ahhh….what will they know how useful I am………I felt betrayed….left out……..alone……..isolated………in that filth and there was none………none but none who came to me…..even those rats had left me……….silly me …how I felt I was important to everyone…..

Days passed on…I lay there………but now I was washed away totally………..that filth had discolored me…………..the rats and fishes had removed my threads……..the filthy water had finished me…………..yes it had FINISHED me…..

“Chalo Chalo Ho gaya…!! Pack it up and send it to the supplier………………….