a growth in my absence

After a tiresome journey of 30 hours I reached at Baliapal. I washed my hands to take my son into my lap. But he was busy in sucking his mother’s milk. I could not disturb him. So I waited looking at him and his mother.

After a few minutes, curling and stretching the limbs in half sleepy state my son welcomed me. He looked little matured and smelt like antibiotic tablets. When I asked my wife why the baby smells so medicated, she told that the baby is taking multivitamin drops. I felt relaxed. At least the perceived effect has a cause known to us. I say it because it is often too difficult to determine the right causes of the various types of behavior patterns of the baby.

Today he lifted and moved his hands in all possible directions but as he had little control on his body parts, the movements of his hands and legs trembled like that of a person who is too old. I intently looked at the movement of the baby and the expression on his face. It seemed as if he had to struggle hard to adjust with the hostile environment.

A baby so understanding

Under the shade of a jack fruit tree we were talking in a group. My flow of speech broke when my attention was captured by a mother and a baby staring from her lap. All of a sudden the baby refreshed the memory of my son. I wanted to hold the baby in my arms purely out of fatherly love. 

The mother of that baby was from the labour class. She had come to join in the construction work that was going on in our college campus. She was carrying a tiffin box in one hand and the baby in the other. I was astonished and asked her, "with the baby how can you manage the work at the construction site?" she smiled and replied, " Babu, it is no problem. The baby plays or sleeps under the tree shade while I work. " The simplicity and the spontaneity of the answer amazed me. 

The poverty & vicissitudes of life have made the baby so understanding that from the early age the baby has become co-operative to the elders who have their relentless compulsions to sell labour even during maternity.

"Bloody Rascals"

I was vehemently opposing their planning to go on a picnic and they stood like rocks, obstinate in their demands. They stood in a group of 100 students and I stood beside my principal negating the very idea of organizing a picnic when the examination was on head. I asked them about their preparedness for the up-coming examination but they did little value my words of counsel. For them I was just a jar of cold water on the heat of their teen-age enthusiasm.


A girl student from the group strongly asserted that going picnic was inevitable. The more they became obstinate, the harsher I became in my dealings. However, the strict admonishments ended the planning of going out in a fiasco but it generated terrible temperature among the all the teen-aged students. They thought me as their enemy who nipped their flowers of love and romance at the budding stage.

I returned home, prayed God. I asked for divine guidance to show me the right course of action and went to bed. The next day the student unrest took another shape. With a long list of my failures as a teacher, the students encircled the principal and asked for justice. The list had mainly highlighted two words, “BLOODY RASCALS”, which I had used that day when I saw the students very obstinately insistent upon organizing a picnic when the exams were at hand.

A baby's cry

The first cry of a newborn baby is a flower of 9-month long of great forbearance and patience. A baby is priceless because he is the condensed form of great human care and love. His innocence and complete dependence on the elders inspire the highest feelings of human love. And this feelings produce the purest joys of life. In a short period, the baby’s well-being & happiness assume to be the sole purpose of the parents’ life.


A baby cannot speak, cannot complain but his little helpless cries warrant the best available care from the elders. When the parents fail to console the crying baby, they cry themselves.

In the morning, my wife phoned me and told that the baby was incessantly crying since midnight. I was nervous. I was nervous because the complaints of a baby in the form of cries are out of pure necessity. It never involves any sort of exaggerations that the elders often wrap around their petty problems. This is why a baby’s cry pricks the heart with utmost urgency.

I phoned my brother in-law and advised him to take the baby to a paediatrician immediately. And at the same time my eyes shed some tears unconsciously when I imagined the helplessness of my baby.

out of sight is out of mind

The happiness of the annual function of my college could not last long when I saw the crying faces of a few senior girl students. The teardrops were loudly describing their utter disappointment. They cried because they could not get the opportunity to stage a one-act play, which they had rehearsed for the last weeklong. They cried because all their costumes, make-up and preparation had ended in smoke.  

Anything out of sight is out of mind- it happened in their case.  Those students stood for long hours in a dimly lit remote corner when other student-groups were busy in performing on stage. That group of girl-students neither reminded nor informed the stage-in-charge of their preparedness to   stage the play. As a result, other groups performed one by one before the audience and went away smilingly but those girls remained aloof in the corner unnoticed and disappointed.  

The light and sound systems, which were hired for the stage programme, had been contracted for a certain period. Beyond that stipulated time, the light and sound system hirer had another call to attend. The time was short and the list of performers was out of proportion. There was immense pressure on the stage manager and during the hectic stage-management; the girl-students got neglected.

The short of time compelled to stop the stage-show abruptly. The declaration of the closure of the cultural programme was heralded all of a sudden and the P.A. system was removed from the stage within no time.

The public started to disappear and at that time, the girl-students appeared before us in tears.

The incompleteness and disappointment on their faces affected my colleagues and me deeply. However I felt more guilty because I was that incapable stage manager.