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“Ravi, look at what you son has
done”
The little kid hid behind his mother and saw his father with one eye.
“Why are you hiding behind me? Go tell dad what you did”
“Arrey! Sanju don’t be so harsh with the kid. What did he do?” and Ravi gestured
the little one to come to him. The little boy nodded his head and continued to
hide behind his mother.
“Arjun, daddy is calling you na, go, go and tell him what you did”
The little one quickly nodded his head and stayed behind his mother, now using
her duppatta to hide his face.
Ravi walked to the little one and sat down near him, as Sanjitha moved away.
“What did my little boy do? Why is he so scared of daddy?”
The little one hug his head, as if he did something drastically wrong.
“Take a look at this” and she showed him a pencil box which had Power Rangers on
it. It was the box that he wanted to have for a long time. But Ravi never bought
it as it was expensive for a pencil box.
“He had stolen it from someone in his school. I saw it in his bag.” |
“Arun, whose box is that daddy never got such a box for you, did someone gift it
to you?”
The little one nodded his head to say that nobody had gifted it to him”
“He told me that it was Varun’s box and he took it from his bag”
“Arrey that’s a very bad habit dear. What would Varun do now? Won’t he cry as
his box is missing?”
“You know what your son said for that? He had left his box in Varun’s bag, so
that Varun won’t cry”
Though Ravi felt like laughing at this act of his dear son, he didn’t, as he
knew that if he laughs the whole situation would become a funny one and Arjun
would continue to steal things.
He stood up and lifted him up on his shoulder “come let’s go for a walk”
As they walked, the little one felt guilty of what he had done, and he felt
guilty that his dad never beat him for what he had done. They passed through a
beggar boy; Ravi gave him a coin and asked Arjun to give it to the beggar.
“Arjun, why did you give the coin to the beggar boy? You could have had it with
you instead of giving it to him isn’t it?”
“Papa that boy has no money, he is poor boy”
“Good, now are you a beggar boy? Do you have a pencil box or you don’t? Only
those who don’t have will take from others”
“I am not a beggar boy”
“Oh! Then why did you take from Varun? Only beggar boys do it”
“I am not a beggar boy”
“Then go and give it to Varun tomorrow, and say that you are not a beggar boy.
If you do that papa will buy you a new pencil box” the kid smiled and nodded his
head.
And they walked home.
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The next day Arjun’s teacher had written a remark on his diary. “Your son is a
gem, you should be proud of him”
After a few days as Sanjitha was busy with some work, Ravi had to pick up Arjun
from school. Ravi worked as a police inspector. He took Arjun to his police
station as his duty time was not over. It was only then that Arjun observed
something. A man came into the station and said to his father, |
“Sir, that’s my son, whom you have arrested, let him free and you will get what
you need” and he grinned.
Ravi thought for some time and gestured the constable to release the guy who was
behind the bars.
The man smiled and gave Ravi a bundle of 500Rs. Ravi smiled and gave a few 500s
to the constables.
When it was time to go home Arjun got into the police jeep and he kept mum.
Wondering what was wrong Ravi tried to pick up a conversation. “So Arjun how was
school today?”
Arjun kept mum still. Suddenly he looked up at his dad and asked, “Daddy are you
a beggar?”
Contributed By:
Leena Bose, I am a
creative writer. I have a triple masters in Literature and Mass communication. I
love to write and I started writing at the age of 16. I am a freelancer for
Women's Era, a Times group magazine. I love challenges in life and also my
profession. I am a go-getter and believe in teamwork rather than be a one women
army.
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