Awaiting her-Suruli

This is surili, a poor little boy who had to take over his father’s business that day. That was the first time his father sent him to the platform shop to sell products. He was dull from the morning as his father was so sick, his father couldn’t get up from bed. Let us see what happens in this one day of this poor kid’s life.

clicked by:SHAN (http://www.flickr.com/photos/narayan_/)

It was 11:30am, the usual time surili’s dad Mariyappan and his fellow vendors usually put up a platform shop. Our little boy came with a huge blue cover which he found heavier than his own weight. He had few earbuds packets in his hands and hung the blue cover in his right hand wrist. He struggled hard to manage all those stuffs on his own without a thing falling down. He reached the spot alloted for his dad. Put everything down and showed a sigh of releif on his face. He took the white mat out of the cover and spread it on the floor. Sat on the mat and kept touching the mat with his palm with a wide smile. This was his dream right from childhood, to sit there and sell products just like his dad. He first took the ear bud packets and looked at it surprised. He did not know what it was used for and did not bother to know. To him those were coloured small straws that are not used for drinking juices. He placed them in one corner. He slowly took the products one by one from the blue bag and placed them in order. Each time he put his hands in and took out a new product, he looked at it surprisingly as half of it was unknown to him.

“Whats next, oh wow it’s a duck” “whats next, oh wow a toy car” and the toys amazed him. His father never showed him or his sister the toys as he was scared that the kids might break them. He placed all of it in the right hand side. He took the car and placed it on the floor to rool it and play. But there came a man to buy something from him. Then he again took the car and placed it on the floor, a man looked at it and walked away. “If I play with the toys I see, people might think Im selling old goods. They might think im playful and not buy. Maybe that’s why this man didn’t buy anything. Let me not play”, surili told himself and placed the toy back. But he wasn’t able to resist. He has always envied the other kids playing with toys but that was the first time he got a chance to handle toys.

He sold few of the stuffs he had brought and wach rupee the buyer gave him made him smile wider and wider.  In the gaps between the sales of each product he counted the money again and again. There was a big gap all of a sudden. No one turned up. He looked all the sides to know if someone was watching him. No one even looked at him. He slowly took a yellow toy car and placed it behind him. The poor boy did not realize that the whole shop was his and no one would even question if he played with all of those. Then again he looked at all the faces around. He made sure no one looked at him and started “Dur dur dur….”, rolling the car.

Few minutes passed and he lost himself in the game. His world had just him and his yellow car. Our suruli did not know that he was using a marketting tactic to seel goods. Lot of kids who passed that way came to his small shop and bought toys. This added to his joy and he realized that, playing with the toys will not affect his business. He continued playing and took a break when there was a customer.

Few hours passed and the business was going on well. Suddenly there came a family with a girl, almost of suruli’s age to a nearby shop. Parents were very busy buying some stuff for their home. The girl was too bored. Surilis “dur dur dur” noise with the game attracted the girl’s attention. She kept looking at him and nagging her parents to buy her a toy car. The parent’s didn’t bother to listen to the kid and continued their bargaining with the shopkeeper. Something made suruli look at the girl, he looked at her. He saw her asking her dad “Dad! Please buy me a toy car” the dad replies “Will you stop nagging me? Can’t you see I am busy? Now be quiet.”. The girl’s eyes were immediately filled with tears. She again looked at suruli and felt bad that he was looking at her getting scolding.

Suruli gestured at her asking if she wanted the car. The girl looked at her father then slowly came near him without her father’s knowledge. He showed her his car and asked “You want this?” She wiped her tears, smiled at him and said “no”. He was wondering why the girl refused to take it, he said “ I don’t want money, take it for free”. She pointed her finger at white car and said “I want this.White is my favorite colour.” Suruli picked the white car and gave her that. The girl made sure that her father wasn’t looking at her then went close to him, kissed him on his cheek and said “thank you anna (brother)”. She took the toy car and hid it inside her frock. Her father called her and she ran to him. When they were about to leave the place, she waved at him and flied him a kiss. Suruli had never seen anyone flying a kiss so he did it in a funny way, copying her. She laughed at it and got into her car. She kept looking at him as far as she could, till she left the road. It was time for suruli to pack up. He never failed to smile a second also that day.

After that everytime his father fell sick he was more than happy to go to the shop. He did the same stuff throughout the day but the girl never returned nor did something like that happen again. 7 years passed and still suruli believes that his stranger sister will come back to the spot and recognize him someday.