complete...

Standing by the window, staring at the vastness of the sky, I felt a hand touch me. As I turned back, I saw a pair of eyes that instilled faith in me. A smile that drove away the wrinkles on my forehead. It was these things about him that ensured me.... he was mine. Ever since, the path of our lives have crossed, I have always felt complete.

I found him on the beach, 2 years back. He was wading into deeper waters and was too small to fight the waves. I was taking a leisurely stroll along the waters. He was alone. Nobody seemed to be having an eye on a boy as young as him. He barely looked like 6yr old. As I wondered what a child like him was doing in such deep waters and how could the parents be so careless, his bobbing head suddenly disappeared. Racing against the waves, I frantically searched for that tiny form of life. By the time I reached him, his head bobbed up again. Smiling, he said, he knew how to swim.

I found him every single evening after that day. First a few smiles, then a little ruffling of hair, then an enthusiastic wave from far off and then to waiting for each other to turn up, we had become friends...fast friends. I bought him something small everyday, may be a choclate or an ice gola. He never questioned me when I din't buy him anything.

He came alone everyday. Intrigued by the observation, I asked him the big 'why'.
" I stay in that house there. That aunty lets us go to play every evening, but she doesn't take us out. So, I jumped the gate to see what it is like outside." "Who stays with you at home?" I asked. "Oh! there a lot of friends and aunty." As I looked in the direction of his house, I could read just one word 'orphanage'. The whole world seemed to spin. The sound of the waves seemed to get louder. How could He do this to a child as adorable as this 6 yr old?

I had called him 'kiddo' from the very start and was surprised that I had never bothered to ask him his name.

"Kiddo! would you like to stay with me?"
" you mean..in your house?"
"yes!"
"forever?"
"forever."

I named kiddo, Aryan. He became my son officially this day, 2 years back. He is in class III, in the school nearby. We are celeberating his b'day today. Mom n Dad were upset that I had taken such a huge step without consulting them.... after all there was a society to answer to. A single mom was still not a very comfortable situation. It took them time to come to terms with their daughter's bold step. But they are here too.

I have given Aryan a family. But what Aryan has given me is inexplicable.


This is purely a work of imagination. So please don't ask me, if I actually have an Aryan!