She was looking outside her window at the park right across the street. It was 6 in the evening. She did not have anything important to do this evening, so she had taken a chair near to the window and was looking outside. There were children playing in the park. They were playing a game of Cricket. She was amused and got herself a cup of coffee to sit down and watch them play.
A match was about to start. The boys had split into two teams and were pitched against each other. It was an interesting distribution. Some small ones, some bulkier. But all of them kids. Little boys, she thought with a smile on her face. Such fierce competition! One boy was wearing a cap and looked like the captain of one team. He had the look of someone who was about to take the most important decision of his life. Toss had happened. He had won. "Bat" she said softly. They chose to bowl first. She grinned to herself.
She looked on as the boys played, smiling at the delivery of one and jerking back in surprise at a brilliant catch the other one took. The match went on amidst shouts and laughter from the boys. Even when they jeered at each other or were angry at their batsman who did not hit any boundaries, it was all fun and play. The evening rolled on. Her cup of coffee was almost over. She thought she was going to drift off to sleep while watching the boys play.
Just then it happened. A tall boy was on the strike. She saw him hit the ball and it was an excellent hit. Only that it came crashing through her window, knocking the coffee mug off her hand and landing on the carpet a little away from her. She was not hurt but the window pane was broken. So was the coffee mug, which had been a gift from him. She stood there, still reeling from the sudden change of everything when she noticed that all the boys had huddled up into the middle of the park, staring at her, scared.
For a moment the world stopped. She was reminded of her childhood and how she and her brother sometimes used to play cricket. She remembered them breaking a similar window pane of their home and how she had crawled through the debris to recover the ball and had later been scolded by her mother. She remembered how that evening as she and her brother lay side by side in the bed, about to sleep off, her brother had smiled at her and told her that she was the best sister in the entire world. She had been smiling even in her sleep.
She slowly picked up the ball and tossed it to the boys who were waiting, too scared to even ask for the ball. Poor kids think I will shout at them, she thought. She leaned outside the window and waved to them. A hurrah went up in the group on getting the bowl back. The match would continue. She smiled to herself and turned away from the window. He would be back from work by 8. He would be upset about the window and the coffee mug. She would try and console him but he would say that she should not have given the ball back. He would want to go and complain to their parents. He would be upset and would not have dinner properly. She knew all of that. Yet with a smile on her face she looked at the shards of glass on the floor. "Broken Glass" she said to herself, before bending down to pick them slowly...one by one...piece by piece...”Almost like my life”…
- Parekh, Pravesh
August 25, 2013;
02:10 AM
