12 O’ Clock (Part VII)

Bittu entered calling, “Hi, Didis.” He stopped short after seeing me.

Sukhwinder introduced me as a sister-like friend. Bittu also began to call me Didi and gave a hand to shake. He was a cute and smart boy. I asked the twins, “How is he in studies?”

Prem told me, “He comes within the 10^th rank in his class. He studies only for 2-3 hours daily. But, he absorbs knowledge like a sponge. He is also a good football player.”

He served the tea and the bhel to us and asked us, “I was going somewhere today with my father and saw a statue on which it was written ‘A Child can be the Mother of its Mother.’ How can the government do such a foolish job?”

Prem told him to sit on an empty chair and explained, “That line is not foolish. It is true. Take your own case. Your mother is out at work the whole day. So, is your father. How do you take care of your ill grandmother? Isn’t it like a mother?”

He smiled sheepishly and replied, “Yes.”

I added to the discussion, “This is a fact. This has happened with my friend also. Her mother is ill and cannot do hard work at home. Therefore, instead of wasting her time; on the advice of my friend, Aunty has studied further, graduating in several subjects and completing the post-graduate stage in 2 subjects. She is also doing a spiritual course at the same. This a real mother will also not do. My friend has done that in 7 years. This is an achievement because all around outside her home there is only stress. The neighbors have been disturbing her own education. Despite that, she has studied and also made her mother study.”

Bittu left with the satisfaction that what he had seen was, after all, something right, after saying, “Bye, bye, Didis.”

Prem asked me, in between selling medicines to clients, “You were going to tell us about a doctor and your aunt. We have a lot of time, today. You can have dinner with us, also.”

To be continued…