Safe, under her wings

Bulbul, resting on a hot summer day.
Pic courtesy- B. Libert 

Ragini was so happy these days. It was the summer vacations and she was out the whole day playing with her building friends. They played outside as it was always hot and dry and the building people allowed them to use the entire premises. Outside, children could play together as bigger groups. Their building was not very big, with just eighteen apartments. Each floor had a landing that was like a square which was central to four homes. Back then, buildings were only four stories high. There were no elevators in residential buildings in their suburbs. Elevators were only seen in the office buildings in the town area or the residential towers of the wealthy who could afford to live there.

Their building didn’t have a huge compound as a lot of place was dedicated to a flower garden. Sometimes Ragini liked to go to the neighbouring building. She had another set of friends there. Two months of summer vacations meant that the choices of whom to play with were never ending. Usually, she knew when her mother expected her at home for lunch. She didn’t like upsetting her mother as things were very well organized at home and not turning up for lunch on time meant that her brother could eat up all the good bits that were served.

This day, she had decided to go to play with her friend Anita in the building next to hers. Anita didn’t usually come to Ragini’s building as she was Anita’s mother didn’t allow it. Ragini’s mother was a bit more lenient when it came to things. So, excited about her upcoming morning, Ragini finished her breakfast and left her home which was on the second floor. As she was running down the stairs, her downstair’s neighbour, Seema, who was also her friend, asked her where she was going. Seema was disappointed hearing that Ragini didn’t have time to play with her.

As she continued descending , Ragini noticed that Seema was tagging along . Yes, her own good sense told Ragini to go and inform Seema’s mother. But, by then Ragini had no more patience. She was just too excited about playing with a new person as she was bored after the weeks of playing with her usual friends.Ragini and Seema reached Anita’s building and played gloriously for a couple of hours. In fact, all three of them were so engrossed that they didn’t hear anyone calling out for them. They didn’t know that Seema’s mother had been frantically trying to find her. When they came back to their own building, Seema and Ragini were accosted by a group of their friends. One of the kids in that group, Harish, seemed to be acting like Seema’s disappearance was personal. He probably felt like the chief of the search party who had finally found the missing person and the culprit who had created the chaos. Before Ragini knew what was happening, Harish punched her hard in the stomach. She was in pain of the kind that she had never ever known. She found herself on the ground, mouth open, but silenced by the pain, tears rolling down her cheeks.Most of the group ran away after they saw what had happened and Harish was nowhere to be seen when Seema helped Ragini up. The two girls climbed the stairs slowly. On the first floor, Seema’s mother was so relieved to see her, she didn’t notice Ragini. Ragini continued upwards towards her own home. When she entered her house, her mother noticed that there was something wrong. Ragini’s mother was not a very fit woman as she had had health issues all her life. She asked Ragini to tell her what had happened. After which, Ragini’s mother helped her to clean up and thoroughly examined her daughter’s stomach region. As lunch was served, they ate together and shortly after, Ragini fell asleep. It was around one o’clock in the afternoon and Ragini slept for more than two hours.When she woke up, she was delighted to see that her mother had a treat for her. A small slice of cake and a glass of milk. The troubles of the morning seemed far away. Ragini was eager to go see her friends again and get back to playing. She knew she would ultimately see Harish again that evening and was apprehensive. However, happily, he was nowhere to be seen. Seema came down to play after some time. That’s when Ragini heard Seema say to the group that she had seen Ragini’s mother walking towards Harish’s house with a cane in her hand. Seema had followed at a safe distance, but, close enough to see Ragini’s mother ring Harish’s door bell. The family inside seemed startled to see Mrs. Mehta stand there and wave her cane at Harish. “Stay away from Ragini”, is what she had heard from a distance.Ragini felt so proud and safe at that instant.

#Heartwarming Mother's Love