Kid In A Metro
Rajkumari Sharma Tankha
The Delhi Metro, I tell you, is a storehouse of stories. Each story gives you an important life lesson. That is, if you keep your ears and eyes open.
The latest story I witnessed in the Metro reinforced the unflinching faith a child has in her mother. It also taught me the importance of saying sorry and forgiving people.
I was on my usual Jangpura-Botanic Garden Metro Station route when I saw this cute little child, not more than three years of age. Standing on the seat (it’s wrong though, standing on the seats, parents must ensure that their child sits and not stands; for standing there’s the floor of the train), this child was constantly speaking, squeaking with delight and patting her father who was sitting next to her, to look out. A clearly disinterested father refused to oblige the child and remained busy with his cellphone.
Then, perhaps to draw his attention, the girl started singing some rhymes, twinkle twinkle little star, ba ba ba ba black sheep, in a loud voice, totally oblivious of the scores of people standing who were by now staring at her, some with amusement in their eyes, others clearly irritated.
Her loud voice perhaps embarrassed her father, who tried to hush her into silence. But the baby would have none of it. She kept singing, and then her embarrassed father, squeezed her hand, perhaps a little too tightly. The girl immediately started crying, and in between her sobs she told her father that she will complain to mummy. Having realised that the child has got hurt, a repentant father told her sorry. And in a flick of second the girl stopped crying and hugged her father. When her father started caressing the hand he had squeezed, the girl was quick to respond, “Papa don’t worry. Mummy will take this pain away. She can do everything.” Her words struck me.
The child’s faith in her mother warmed my heart. And I blessed her to retain this faith in her mother even when she reaches the troubled teens.
If only each child retains this faith when he/she grows up, it would be wonderful. Many a problem that teenaged children face would evaporate into thin air if only they believed in their parents, shared their issues with them and have faith that things would be worked out. And we would then have much lesser cases of depression, anxiety, stress and suicide.
Metromania
