Sunday 18 October 2009

Diwali Gift


Every year Diwali brings new clothes, lots of fire crackers, sweets, etc. But this year, it also brought with it a larger than life experience. My brother had reached home just a day before Diwali. Having reached before him, I was waiting for him to come and then go shopping for the fire crackers together. On the eve of Diwali, in the afternoon, we decided to go. In the market, he gave me some money to buy the crackers and got busy on his phone. He told me to buy the crackers and that he would return in a while. After I had finished, I looked around but couldn’t find my brother. My brother is of a very silent persona. He generally keeps to himself or his small group of friends. He hates beggars. When I or my mother stop to give them alms, he gets irritated and starts cribbing. I kept searching and when I couldn’t find him in the rush, I decided to make a call on his phone. But the call went unanswered. Lots of thoughts crossed through my mind. There were hundreds of people there. It was difficult to search for him. Suddenly he called me up and asked me to come where the car had been parked. When I asked him where had he been he just made a few excuses and didn’t make an eye contact. I suddenly realised that he didn’t drive back to home. We were going ahead into the city. I kept on asking him but he didn’t reply. He suddenly stopped outside a narrow lane and took out a huge packet from the ‘dicky’ and asked me to accompany him. I couldn’t help except for giving puzzled looks. We walked further and saw lots of huts. I then came to know that my brother had left me there to buy crackers for the poor children living in this area. Now he was busy distributing them to him. I just stood still and kept smiling. I had never in my dreams imagined that such a change could dawn on my brother. We having got late in reaching home, my parents were calling us. My brother was still not answering them. He was busy with the children. But I wanted to be back home quickly to share with my parents what I had witnessed!