A lot of people known to Swara had succumbed to Covid this year. The latest was her daughter’s school van owner, who she heard, had passed away the previous day. Swara had known him for the past 10 years. Her kids commuted to school in his van. She was happy with the van service, but for one odd incident that had happened earlier this year, which was etched in her memory:
One morning Swara was worried. Her daughter Lavanya had not come back from school. It was already half an hour past the usual time. She called the van owner who told her that there might be traffic on the road. Another half an hour passed. Swara was getting restless. He had promised to call her after talking to his driver. She called the van owner again. He hadn’t been able to get in touch with his driver. The van had never been so late before. She didn’t know what to do. What if something had happened? Though she tried not to, she could not take out bad thoughts from her mind.
She thought of calling her mom or husband for some consolation, but what would they do? She would unnecessarily worry them too. She called the owner again. No reply. What if there was some delay in school? She called her daughter’s friends. They had already reached home and they had even seen Lavanya get inside the van. It was more than an hour and a half now. Swara took her car keys. She thought she would go and find out what happened. She consoled and reassured herself that nothing would be wrong. As soon as she stepped out of her house, the lift opened. There she was, Lavanya!
Swara went weak in the knees. Such a relief! She hugged her and both went inside the house. When Swara regained composure, Lavanya told her that their van had broken down and they had to wait until another van was arranged to pick them up. The van owner too called and apologized. It wasn’t his fault after all! He too had a daughter who was of Lavanya’s age.
Now that the van owner was no more, she felt very bad for the van owner’s family. He was such a sweet man. Losing a dear one is indeed sad!
She recollected something similar which had happened in her childhood. After a while she sat down to write
‘I was 7 years old. Mom had a new house help at home. This maid had a son who was about 16 or 17. One day, mom urgently wanted a few things from our usual provision store. The maid promptly called her son who was playing nearby. Since he was not sure about the location of the store, I was sent along with him to show him the same. ( because I frequented the store with dad)
We both set off. I showed him the shop and he started buying from the list mom had given him. Once he finished, he returned home to give her the stuff. I was nowhere to be seen. Mom asked him where I was and he innocently told her “I thought she must have come home. She went away after showing me the shop”
My mom was distraught. A search mission started. Our neighbours went helter-skelter in search of me. There was no sign of me. The shop owner’s brother, who knew me, took his cycle and started looking for me. It was almost an hour now. He was the one who finally found me. There I was, merrily sitting by the side of a pond, enjoying the sight of the boys fishing! He immediately caught hold of my arm and asked me to sit on his cycle. I refused to go. I told him “I don’t know you. I won’t come with you”. I can’t believe I told him this! He then called his brother, the shop owner, who came, picked me up and took me home.
Poor mom, she was worried to death. She hugged me tight! Later on, I told them how I had always wanted to watch the boys fishing in this pond, which was close to the shop. Dad was always in a hurry and he would tell me ‘next time’. So this time I thought I could use the opportunity to watch the same! Little did I know that it wasn’t safe. Anything could have happened to me, right?
Well, God has been with me always, watching me all the time, protecting me. That’s all I can say!
Today, I can relate to what my mom must have gone through that day. Firstly, I can’t imagine sending my 7 year old daughter with a maid’s 17 year old! It was no fault of his that I left the shop without him. He was an innocent boy. My mom, probably naive, hadn’t doubted, even for a second, whether he would have done anything to me! I guess the world was a much better place then.
In the present day, it is difficult to place our trust on anyone. This is one reason I quit my job as I could not trust a maid or a day care centre to look after my kids. With kidnapping, rapes and what not happening, the world is so unsafe. Nothing wrong, but sometimes we are all ‘over protective’ about our kids, aren’t we? And still incidents happen, right?
Well, with our trust placed on God, nothing can go wrong! That’s my strong belief.’
Swara went back to her work.
