A couple of weeks back, a small encounter brought a smile to my face and left me thinking that day about innate human qualities and in fact for a couple of days after.
One of the kids at the Home is a special child, with some mental disability. However, he is one of the most genuine and innocent kids there and openly talks his heart out. While he is teased by others, calling him “mental”, he is actually a really deep person and understands emotions extremely well. He lightens up everyone’s mood when he is present in the room or when anyone strikes a conversation with him, but behind his smile, there is a lot of trauma and suffering. Nevertheless, he is always smiling. :))
So the other day, as he was running past me towards the carpentry class, he quickly said, “mujhe ek locket banvana hai sutar class se!” (“I want to get a locket (collar) made from the carpentry class!”). I asked him why he wanted a locket, to which he swiftly replied, “billi ke liye” (“for the cat”). I further inquired which cat and “why do you want a collar for the cat?” He explained, “peeche CR ke pass, mein ek billi ko palta hoon” (“behind, near our dormitory, I take care of a cat”). Becoming more curious, and with a feeling that he is unnecessarily troubling the cat by wanting to put a collar, I questioned him why he wanted to put a collar on the poor cat? Without skipping a beat, he said, “Taaki log usse maare nahi. Aise hi ghoomti hai toh log usse laat marte hai, bhaga dete hai, parishan karte hai. Lekin agar ek locket hoga, toh log nahi parishan karenge usse.” (“So that people wouldn’t hit her. When she roams around, people kick her or shoo her away or trouble her. If she has a collar, no one will trouble her.”) Saying this, he carried on towards the carpentry class set out on his task, leaving me thinking about many different things!
First of all, I was caught internally, for being judgemental towards him. After listening to his responses, I had a wide smile on my face! Then it got me thinking about the kid himself; the innocence, the clarity, the care, and the empathy which he had for the cat. I was also pondering about these bonds and relationships that we humans share with pets and other animals. And then, the other side also struck me, that this intervention was needed in the first place because there are other people who troubled the cat!
With those mixed thoughts and a smile on my face, I carried on with my day. And a few days later, the kid took me inside to show a small new born kitten, given birth to by the mother cat he was talking about. 🙂
