The Smiling Boy

I was walking around the park that day, thinking about what I would do after graduating from college.

Suddenly I saw someone falling from the top of a big house on the other side of the street. He was yelling at the top of his voice, and everyone on the ground was looking at this boy dashing towards the bottom at full speed.

I was awestruck. I quickly ran across the road on the other side to capture this scene on my newly bought smartphone. This was the best moment to test how good the camera was. And if I didn’t get the expected outcome, I could have exchanged it for a better one, as per the company’s policy.

While running, I saw a middle-aged woman, most probably in her mid-thirties, crossing the road with her newly born lad. She was trembling when she realized that a person would lose his life in the next few seconds. I glanced at the young lad’s face but saw nothing more than his forehead as a pink-coloured blanket covered his entire face.

Gulping my saliva in, I continued running towards the house. I quickly peeked at the divider separating the roads and saw heaps of dirt rotting on its edges. The divider was broad enough, about 25 inches wide, adorned with short bushes. One thing that every person living in the city could agree about the municipal corporation was that they were adept at planting seeds, watering them, and putting in the right kind of soil. But these seeds would never germinate. And even if some of them shot up from the earth, they would never achieve their desired height. 

I quickly diverted my attention from the unclean and dirty divider towards the falling boy, but my eyes got stuck on a rickshaw carrying school children across the road. They shook their heads and clapped their hands as if singing a song. I immediately recalled my childhood days, when I travelled on a rickshaw to the city school, playing “Stone, Paper & Scissors” with my friends and singing songs my music teacher taught me. Those were the golden days when I had friends to play out in the open, studies were not at all challenging, and most importantly, I had no responsibilities. I hope someday I will find a portal that will carry me back to my childhood. But that appears to be a pipedream for now. Will such a day ever come into my life? Well… a wise man once said… dreams do come true irrespective of how impossible they may appear. 

To the right of the rickshaw, I saw a group of boys wearing blue blazers with the insignia of the Metropolitan Engineering College imprinted on them. I completed my MSc in Computer Science from the same college a year ago. It’s one of the finest Engineering colleges in the country. About one and a half million students compete to get a seat in this prestigious college. And I was lucky enough to get a gold medal for achieving the highest score in all four years. But look at what I am doing today. I am a wildlife photographer who roams around the globe to capture animals in their natural surroundings — raw, untamed… living the life they want, just as nature intended.

Why can’t I live a similar life? What’s stopping me? Can I get out of this mess somehow? Maybe not or perhaps I can. Although there is no immediate solution to my troubles, I may come out of this mess someday. Someday a caped crusader will come flying in the sky or maybe pop up from an underground tunnel, pick me up in his strong hands and carry me to a faraway land… a land with a vast library filled with adventurous novels and superhero comics. Why do I wish to read about superheroes instead of becoming one? Haha… I don’t have a concrete answer to that. I have wanted to become a prolific writer since I was a child. I wanted everyone to appreciate me for my writing skills. It would be great if the hottest girl in my school would come to me and invite me to her home for dinner with teary eyes. Awesome… isn’t it?

Well, nothing of that sort ever happened. Moreover, I am long done with that stage. The stage when every boy likes to have the most beautiful girl by his side. When testosterone is raging inside your body and almost wholly hijacks your mental capacities. When you pay more attention to your abs, biceps, triceps, and facial features. And thank God I am done with it. It appears so rudimentary and foolish now. How could I have ever done that? But one thing hasn’t changed. Whenever I used to come in contact with a sexy chick… every nerve, muscle, and fibre of my body used to fill with adrenaline. This feeling… this ecstatic feeling I still crave for. And fortunately, there are many more things I can do now to enjoy this feeling over and over again like whenever I turn on the ignition of my car, when I start playing my favorite online game, or when I receive my fiancé’s message on WhatsApp... the list goes on. It’s been a wild journey growing up. From being a senseless young kid to a not-so-senseless grown-up man. WOW!

Suddenly, I heard a large thud. The boy had hit the ground with full force. A pool of blood could be seen around his head. The first circle around the dead body was composed of men, some standing with closed fists, others with their hands behind their heads, and others who seemed to have no trouble seeing a young boy with a deformed body. The outer ring was composed of women crying, sobbing, wailing, and yelling. “AAAAAhhhhhhh”, I heard a loud cry from my back. This young girl wearing a yellow scarf fell to the ground. She couldn’t bear what she saw. It was too much for her. I unzipped my bag, took out my water bottle, and sprinkled some drops on her eyes and forehead. Luckily she got up. 

Then slowly and steadily, I made my way towards the dead boy, gently pushing the awestricken spectators. When I reached the spot, I saw the boy with a gentle smile across his lips. But why was he smiling? His bones were broken, his blood was oozing out, his head had busted… then why was he smiling. Why?

That day I didn’t take out my smartphone… my eyes did the job.