You dont know what you get....

Hi Lucky,
I know its 5am and not the best time to be writing to you. But something interesting happened today Lucky. I had a really interesting meeting today,shared some really interesting thoughts with a person and learnt a lot about life. No, its not a girl and neither is it one of my official meetings with one of the stereotype managers coming straight out of a ‘Manager Factory’. It was none other than a 10 year old kid!!!!!
Its that phase of my life when I just want to be alone and I was trying to escape from life last night- not sure about what I was doing or what I ought to be doing or whether I was thinking too much or if I was just getting worried for nothing. I was taking some time out from my boring life and trying to enjoy the waves on the beach and staring at the moon(more a crescent) when somebody decided to ruin the only few moments of solace I had in a long time by tapping on my shoulder(I thought- Oh crap!! It’s the cops- you are not supposed to be at the beach past 12)- and it was this 9 or 10 year old kid! Wearing kiddie sleeveless and three-fourths, soiled from top to bottom, a huge balloon and a pair of Nike sneakers in his hands- this kid looks at me and says-“Bhaiyya!! I need a favour…”. I was like- Kid & favour???. “That’s my brother” and points to a distant figure- couldn’t see his face- but my height maybe. “Hes been talking to his girlfriend for almost 2 hours now and he is not listening to me. My brother told Mummy that he wanted to take Rambo-our dog, to the beach and now we’ve been here for two hours”. The kid now sat next to me and said- “can I wait here till he is done? I am feeling scared alone and he is driving me away so that I cant listen to his personal talk”. The beach at midnight is the best place one could get some privacy and recollect thoughts and possibly resolve a few internal conflicts. The Kid had to ruin it!!! I hate Kids- man they are like the mosquitoes you have around in the house- they keep buzzing into your ears, sucking out the little bit of blood in the body that remains(the remaining is just some fluid- a waste), don’t allow you sleep or even rest- even the freaking repellents don’t work for too long- the mosquitoes become immune with time.
The kid bugged me with stupid stuff about himself and questions that I was in no mood to answer and I monosyllabically answered a few questions, which is when the kid came out with something crazy out of the blue-“You don’t seem happy??”. I was a bit startled to see this coming from a kid and got really pissed and blasted out- “Listen Kid- I hate my work, I have no friends, I don’t feel like talking to people, I cant go back in time to change things, I don’t feel like eating or sleeping or passing a smile or just seeing people in the first place. So I am not exactly happy- and I don’t feel there is anything great that can happen by talking to you. Talk to me only if you think you can help or if you at least care to listen”. Whoa… that was mean…. Really mean on my part- and I thought the kid would run away, probably even cry- but to my surprise he did something crazy Lucky, he got up and moved towards me- I thought he has a dagger hidden somewhere and would probably stab me for what I said. But to my surprise he came over and hugged me. And I was just baffled at this weird action of his - Is this kid crazy or am I crazy to be talking to a stranger (after all one of the few things I still believe what my mother told me as a kid- Don’t talk to strangers!!). The kid then says-“Feel better?”. I thought of saying “Feels sick you freako kid… what were you thinking??”. But then I held back my words and thoughts, I don’t know why or how. It was actually feeling a bit lighter, calmer like a soothing breeze(although it was quite windy on the beach already) and I said “Yeah- it does feel better”. The kid says “And I don’t even know you!! You know what my Mummy says- you can feel happy if you want to feel so, you can be sad if you want to be so- its all in your hands. See I don’t even know you and you feel better just because you think I care for you- but I don’t!!” . I was baffled, dumbfounded- Who is this kid??? Is he some kind of Messiah or something??. He continues –“Now try another thing- Close you eyes for 10 seconds and take deep breaths- you’ll feel even better”. I did so and started taking deep breaths- it was actually feeling better and was almost getting into meditation mode. I could hear the kid say- “Breathe Slowly.. slowly” initially but his voice died down. The 10 seconds became 20 and then 30 and after nearly a minute I opened my eyes- the Kid was gone.
I looked around and couldn’t see him. I saw his brother was still busy on the phone and ran to him and asked him “Where is your brother?”. ”What brother?? Whos brother??”. I immediately guessed that the kid had bluffed and then I feared the worst and checked for my wallet and phone- they were quite obviously gone. I mean what was I thinking- Midnight-kid wanting to sit next to me of all people in the world- duh!! I’m a fool. I ran to the cops(for a change) and one of the cops’ obvious answer in tamil “Inge addu common taane”(this is a common thing here). Aaaah- the kid was just another ‘Kallan’ (Pick-pocket).
I did a bit of running around, a few phone calls- but to no effect, afterall it was the middle of the night.After being worried and tensed and pissed for some time- not knowing what to do- I just retired back to where I was sitting on the beach. I started looking at the crescent once again and remembered what the kid said started taking deep breaths. Although,this time for over 5 minutes- and this time it was different- although I was worried about having lost all the stuff- I was also feeling liberated and at end of those 5 minutes everything seemed to just have become normal again- I was actually feeling better. It was a feeling of being suspended by a harness and rope in a Bungee Jump- you are worried and tensed and yet you are free…
When I look back at it Lucky, that phone and the money were the root cause for a lot of my troubles(not getting into details- you already know it), not just in my life but in the lives of everyone around. And they were gone- just like that! The kid wasn’t a Pick-pocket after all, and I’m convinced it wasn’t just a coincidence!!