It was scorching…
The sun was out in all it’s fury, burning away every single drop of moisture in the air…
She limped on, having by then lost all emotions and thoughts, to tiredness, tenderly clutching the hands of her mother, who had hers around her husband’s.
By then her physical sensations had also been numbed… Her feet did not feel the heat of the tarmac anymore…
She walked on in silence, just like the numerous others all around them… Towards a place her parents said was called home…
They had never taken her outside that place with the big buildings before… And, she did not know how long more it would take…
They just kept saying to her that they’ll reach soon and then everything will be fine…
She was feeling thirsty and wanted water.. She just then tugged at her mother, pulling her hand…
Then it happened… Her mother collapsed, falling backwards, as if on her pull and she fell with a loud thud… She was big… Her belly had grown big in the last few months…
Her father started crying out… She had never seen her father like that… He dropped the large cloth bag he was carrying on his head and was trying to lift her mother…
She did not know, what happened and did not have the energy to go on… She also dropped down on the ground, next to her mother…
Her mother’s eyes were closed… Her father was splashing water on her mother’s face… Water that she had wanted to ask for herself…
Just then, a shadow fell on them…
“Come lift her up”, said the voice and helped her father lift her up… They took her under a nearby bridge and came back to pick up the bag, and her…
The man to whom the voice belonged to also did not show his face… He was speaking to his father and was handing over packets, from a bag he was carrying.
A lot of people had gathered under the bridge and everyone were being handed over packets… She was sitting next to her mother, as her father came back…
She could feel someones hand on her head… Her mother was awake and she saw her father smile… It felt good, to see him smile…
He gave her mother some water to drink and opened the packets… It was a red colored rice… He fed her mother and her, simultaneously…
As her mother, slowly, lifted herself up…
“You also eat”, her mother told her father and fed him…
She had never seen her mother this big… Her belly was big and she was worried she would blow up…
But never told her that… Worried that the thought would trigger it…
After the food, she finally got to drink some water…
She had never asked, afraid of taking up something her mother might need…
She then, put her head on her mother’s lap and closed her eyes…
Then she could hear it, both her mother and father were crying… She was afraid to open her eyes and get up…
They were crying, saying they will not reach home… They will not see home again…
She was stuck still… Not able to move…
Just then, she heard the same voice…
“The buses are here… You should come back to the camp with us… It’s not safe here…”, It told…
She woke up, the voice and words breaking her paralysis… Eager to see the bus… Her tiredness forgotten…
Her parents had stopped crying… And were also looking around…
Everyone around them, were moving on towards the buses…
“Stay strong… We are in this together… Tomorrow will be a better day…”, The voice said and for the first time she saw the eyes, of the man who spoke… She had never noticed anyone’s eyes before…
Those eyes made her, jump up and go hug him… And she cried, for the first time since they left that place with those big buildings…
She did not know what was happening… But that voice and those eyes made her feel good…
The man picked her up and took her towards the bus, wiping away her tears, as her father and mother followed them…
They got a seat in the bus and she was sitting in the window seat on her father’s lap… Staring out at the man, standing at the middle of the road…
With his face hidden and eyes that made her forget her fear…
She stared on, as the bus started…
And on she looked, for those eyes… Till she could not see them anymore…
My Discovery of India 