Sep 1, 2011

Someone New...


I met someone new last week. New not just to me, but to the world. Only just a couple of weeks new. A tiny little person, a person nevertheless.

He had 10 tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes, this cute little angel-doll person. He lay at the center of a bed, covererd tenderly by the softest blanket that was probably the size of my towel. His eyes were shut and hands rolled up tightly into little fist balls. His small legs wouldn't lay straight no matter how much I tried to flatten them out. His spongy, pudgy wrists were such a contrast to my bony, hard ones.

The poor creature had his first-ever cold; his breathing was disturbed and irregular. And yet, he slept. Slept, like only a baby could.

Occasionally, he opened his eyes and we called out his name. It is probably just a strange noise to him. A noise he has not yet learnt to recognize as his own. A noise that in a few years will become his strongest identity. He smiles his mysterious smile and goes back to sleep.

I wonder what he dreams of. I wonder if he knows things that I do not. Maybe, he knows the secrets of the universe. Maybe he knows of a galaxy far, far away where dreams woven and sent to us at night. What is it that he knows that he will soon forget, just like the rest of us, when he learns to speak?

I did not wish to stop looking at him. Maybe, I thought, if I stared long enough, I could break the barrier of words and join him in his word-less realm of knowledge. Maybe I could let him teach me, if he would consent to do so, that is. How wonderful it would be, to have this little creature as a tutor, who has not yet been afflicted by the maladies of being human.

1 comment:

  1. How wonderful it would be, to have this little creature as a tutor, who has not yet been afflicted by the maladies of being human. - Very nicely written Sumitra.

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