Innocence

Innocence

Knock, Knock …
“Sibi ikka get up, get up… let’s play”

“Ho my god, this boy won’t let me sleep” I thought.

“I am awake Rizu, will come down in a minute, stop knocking the door, you’ll bust it”
I shouted.

But the knocking continued.
He knows if he stops knocking, I won’t get up.

I reached to door’s lock and unlocked it.

There he was, my nephew Rizwan, standing with a cricket bat, smiling.
It was a yellow plastic bat with a big smiling picture of Sachin Tendulkar.
He’s a big Sachin fan like every other Indian kid.
He was standing with his bat raised like a victorious king with his raised sword
Or was he trying to imitate Sachin after scoring a century?

“Rizu… it’s only 9:30 am… let me sleep for sometime… I slept late yesterday”

He was not ready to listen.
He came in and started hitting me with his plastic bat.
Finally I had to get up and went down with him.

I was too lazy to play with him.
So as usual I said some excuse.

But this time, he was not ready to leave me just like that.
He kept troubling me asking me to play.
He was going on telling “Sibi ikka, come please, we’ll play just one game,
After one game, I won’t trouble you, please”.

From the kitchen, I could hear my sister shouting.
“Rizwan, y do u call him ikka?
He’s your “maama”, call him “sibi maama “.
“Chinchu and Nimmy( my cousins) calls him “Sibi ikka”, then why should I call him “Sibi maama”
He shouted back.

As usual, my sister stopped shouting coz she knew he won’t listen. He always comes up with such arguments when my sister says don’t do this or don’t do that. Most of the time, she will have to accept her defeat coz Rizu never accepts he is wrong.

I was busy watching my favorite TV channels, coz I don’t have set top box in Chennai.
Usually Rizu will be playing in the other room when am watching TV, but he will be waiting for me to take a break.
When I come back, the channel will be either “POGO” or “Cartoon Network” and remote will be missing. Of course he too will be missing. He will be hiding somewhere and I have to find him. This was his way to make me play “Hide n Seek” with him. So nowadays I carry the “TV remote” with me when I take breaks. One day accidentally I even took the remote to bathroom.

But this time, he had decided that he will make me play with him. He was not ready to give up.
Frustrated, he snatched my mobile and showed actions as if he was going to throw it.

Ho my god, my new mobile.
I lost my temper; I took the mobile from him and gave him nice beating on his legs.
He started crying.
Well I can’t explain how exactly he cried,
It was like,
He was rolling on the floor and screaming.
Then he started jumping and again started rolling.

“I think I hit him hard” I mused.

Then my parents and sister came running and took him outside.


My parents never scold him.
Sometimes I tell mummy, “It’s you and papa who are spoiling the kid. I remember how you people used to scold me when I was a kid.”
They’ll say,
“Grand parents can never scold their grand children, it’s like that, you’ll understand that when you become a grand father”
“Yeah may be” I’ll say in a bored tone.

That day, I was lying on my bed, trying to sleep.
Suddenly I felt bad about scolding Rizu. I had never beaten him like that though I used to scold him.
“I should not have hit him that hard” I mused.
Actually it’s my mistake, he was asking to play with him from morning and I was simply sitting and watching the so called idiot box.

I went down to his room. There he was, sleeping like an angel. When I touched his legs, I could feel some marks on his leg.
Yes those were the marks of my hand; I had beaten him so hard.
Tears rolled from my eyes.
How can I be so callous?
How can I give him such a wallop for just asking me to play with him?

I bend down, gave him a kiss on his cheek and said “am sorry Rizu, am really sorry”

“He will never come to me again,
He will never ask me to play with him” I thought.

Next day morning I was woken up by the familiar knock.
Knock, Knock …
“Sibi ikka get up, get up...
Let’s play”

I got up from my bed and unlocked the door.

Yes, there he was, smiling with his favorite cricket bat in his hand.


I hugged him and said
“I am sorry Rizu, I won’t hit you again”

I could see his bewildered face thinking what his maama is saying. He had long before forgotten that I had hurt him.

That’s how children are, so innocent.

If people in this world were innocent like children…
If people in this world can forget and forgive the wrong things done by others…
If no one swore vengeance on anyone, all live and let others live…
How peaceful this world will be,
How beautiful the world will be.
There will be no wars… no conflicts…
There will be only love, love and only love.

Suddenly I felt someone pulling my hand.
It was him asking me to play.

I smiled and said “yeah let’s play “

And I saw him smile,
A smile that I would say is the most beautiful smile I have ever seen in my life.
It’s not the artificial smile of the models in beauty contest which people say is the most beautiful smile.
It was a smile of innocence, a smile of love.

He ran holding my hand,
And I ran with him like a kid.

*****************************************************************

*Maama: Mother’s brother
*Ikka: Brother