POMEGRANATE JUICE

                                                          

There are innumerable people whom you meet in your life. Some come to leave, some stay and some may not stay but they definitely leave a wonderful mark that you can never erase, no matter how many seasons pass.

I have met so many people till date, who have helped me be what I am today and have learnt so much from them, but him; that gem, I CAN NEVER FORGET HIM.

He swayed into my life like a gush of cool breeze, made my life a little better, and left quietly, without announcing.

I was eight, enthusiastic and passionate about everything that you can do on stage, from dancing to singing to debates to elocution, but was way too quiet and introvert in real life. 

Call me fortunate, but mobile phones were not the thing for kids those days, we were shooed out of our houses to play kho-kho instead. So talking about not keeping mobile phones, I had a school function where I had to dance, and my parents weren't there to drop me to the auditorium, so a rickshaw was hired for the day for my safe and smooth mobility.

However, it didn't turn out as my parents expected and when I was finally done with the dancing by around 4 pm, the rickshaw didn't show up where it was supposed to.

I, being an 8 year old without a mobile phone, didn't know what to do, as children always think that parents are magicians, and they always find a way, anyhow.

To give you little background, I used to study in the Campus School of Indian Institute Of Technology, Kanpur. All our functions used to take place in the IIT's Stadium or the Auditorium, so all the students and the faculty of IIT had access to all the functions.

Moving on, I waited till 6, far more than the limit of my 8 year old mind had allowed me, and then I had enough on my plate and started to cry.

Just then, out of nowhere, came that angel: 20-ish, tanned, curly hair, checked shirt in the shades of blue, square rimmed spectacles and a gentle and kind visage. He was most probably a student from IITK.

"Who's that celebrity wasting water?" He came up to me and sat to match the level of my height.
I was always told by my mom to not talk to strangers, so I resumed crying.

After ten fruitless minutes, when I was still crying, he finally threw the final punch and said:
"You danced so well, from where did you learn?"

"You saw?" I said, hiccuping and slowly stopped to cry. See, I was always the I-Admire-Art kind of person.

He smiled and slowly that gold digger took out all the information from me, my name and my address and called up my mom so that I can talk to her. He too conversed with her, she sounded relived, called up the driver and told him to pick me up in the next half an hour.

In the mean time, that pretty soul talked to me, offered me Pomegranate juice, I was reluctant about that but which I eventually drank, told me how wonderfully I danced and waited with me till the rickshaw came. The funny part, I didn't ask him his name.

When I got back home my mother called him up to say thank you and asked his name again.

"It doen't matter aunty." was all he said before cutting the call.

I never had any contact with him after that day, and I dont know what his name is and I was never able to say a proper thank you to him, but everytime I have pomegranate juice, I remember that angel. And thanks to all the juice stalls near my house and college, they make sure I remember him and smile each day.