It’s a boring Saturday evening and as usual I am on the Mangalore roads for my weekend evening stroll, something which I am not able to do on weekdays; thanks to busy work schedule … you never get chance to leave home till the darkness has crept all over.
Returning back to evening, the sun has settled after working hard whole day and has left his foot-prints on the road which is still hot and dry. Ahead of me, is walking a boy of around 10 years of age. He is playing with “something” by tossing it up in the air and then catching it again. I watched him moving ahead and kept on continuing my aimless stroll. Somehow, that “something” with which the boy was playing, slipped out of his hands and went towards the middle of the road. From my behind, I can hear a bus coming and I just turned to see it. It was the usual Mangalore bus, whose drivers don’t consider them less than F-1 drivers; their beloved buses less than F-1 cars and of-course Mangalore roads as F-1 tracks :-). When I turned back towards the boy, to my utter surprise, I saw him running towards the middle of road inspite of the approaching bus to get back that “something” which has slipped from his hands. He picked it up and just managed to return back to safety. He almost risked his life in getting back the “thing” with which he was playing.
I approached and asked him – “What is that in your hand for which you almost risked your life”. He opened his palm and showed me normal looking pebble in his hand. I asked him again – “Why the hell do you risked your life for such a simple pebble which you can get anywhere else on the road”. He told me that it is very precious for him. It is with him for more than a year and he keeps it with him always. I told him – “You are mad. Take care and never do this again”. He smiled and then replied these three words in Hindi – “Aap nahin samjhoge” [You won’t understand]. Then he melted down in a nearby lane.
I can’t stop myself from smiling for his last statement. Yeah perhaps I won’t understand that why on earth a person would risk his life for such an ordinary and worthless pebble. Or may be… I would understand because this boy reminded me of another boy who had done something similar around 15 years back. That boy has also lost one of his favourite pebbles in the middle of road and he also ran back to get it back ignoring the approaching traffic. But that boy was not so lucky and was hit by an approaching scooter. Luckily he escaped with minor bruises but lost his “precious stone” and is writing this blog currently.
Yes, it was a “Precious Stone”. For others is was a worthless pebble which would have no value other than lying on a dusty road or being part of concrete-mixture for some building. But for that boy, it was his companion, his friend with whom he had spent countless hours playing.
Sometimes, in life you care for something not because it has got very high monetary value or importance but you care for it because you are emotionally attached to it for no reason. And if you can risk your life to get it back, it is indeed worth a “Precious Stone”.
PS – This may sound like stupidity of a 10 year old boy if we think logically. But sometimes, too much reasoning destroys the beauty of simple things. So let those simple things be untouched from human reasoning like the innocence of this 10 year old kid who has a different meaning of “Precious Stone”.
~Mayank