Monday, October 24, 2005

Ice-cream

“Chetta, can u give me some ice?”

I was having my daily afternoon nap, and was engaged in a not so bad day-dream on the sofa in the verandah of my house that this spongy little voice from outside the door woke me up. With a modest discontent ascribed to the damage of my dream, I looked outside for the origin of the voice.

A small kid of age some where around five or six with a tanned dusty body, wavy hair, a guiltless smile and a pair of breeches torn at a few places stood at the patio with a small aluminum tumbler in his hand. Dust had drawn gradients on his garments in the same way as it did on his body. But his eyes had this striking innocence concealed in it, which was trying to break free. And that gave him a remarkable charm.

“What? What do you want?” I asked him with an added seriousness.

“Chetta, can you give me some ice from the fridge.” I realized that his words also veiled the same innocence in it.

“Why do you want ice?”

“We want to make ice-cream from it.” He replied with a feeling of pride on his face.

“We?”

“I and my sister. She is there at our house waiting for me to come with the ice.”

“Oh! But ice-cream is not made that way kid.” A splash of melancholy wavered through his face. Even though ice-cream is not made like that and it doesn’t matter to me whatsoever as to what this kid is going to do with the ice cubes I am going to give to him, an afterthought made me feel the disappointment he would have felt when I said that. And I felt bad.

“Don’t worry; just give it a try and may be you will settle down with something similar. Let me see whether there are some ice cubes in the fridge.” And I walked inside my house just to find out that there weren’t any ice cubes in the freezer.

“Can you come back after an hour? I just put some water in the fridge and it will take some time to form ice.” I was back telling him this.

“Ok chetta, I will be back in an hour. Shall I keep this tumbler here?” He kept the tumbler by the side of the doorsteps and dashed off to the gate. I looked at that tumbler. It was filled with hopes; hopes of making ice-cream out of ice cubes. Hopes which I am sure were not going to get materialized. I took that tumbler inside my house.

He came to my house after an hour. I was still at the verandah, on the sofa, skimming through some magazines.

“Chetta, ice is ready?”

“Hmm… Let me have a look.” And I went to the kitchen. The ice was ready long back. I returned to the verandah and handed over the tumbler with ice cubes in it, to the child. His face brightened all of a sudden, as if he got a treasure.

“Thanks chetta.” His happiness reflected in his words.

He was about to leave that I continued. “Hey actually when I made that ice for you, the fridge kind of over-cooled some of it and here is something I got as a result.” I raised my hand towards him. It carried a small aluminum bowl which contained the ice-cream that I bought from the nearby store a few minutes back.

“It is some ice-cream. It is of no use to me. If you want you can take it” I said with a puny little smile on my face. “But yeah you have to return this bowl okay?”

“Ok chetta.” He took that bowl from me and ran towards the gate, towards his house, towards his little sister, who was waiting for the ice cubes for making ice-cream out of it.

I knew that what I said didn’t make any sense at all. Water over-cooled and became ice-cream! But it didn’t matter to me. What did matter to me was the happiness on those two petite faces; faces of that boy and his little sister. And I didn’t want that to disappear and give way to disappointment...

PS: Chetta(n) is a Malayalam word used to address elders.


37 comments:

esvee said...

:-)

kickassso said...

chetta is also a malayalam theri
Pha! chettae!

Thanu said...

oh so heartfel. There are so many things that we take for granted. Great post.

Jiby said...

children are the happiest things in the whole world...simply bcoz they are so innocent and have so little to worry about...but then i wonder if many kids even get to enjoy a good childhood depending on the circumstances they grow up in. each and every post of yours makes us think so much man.

Sujith said...

> esvee
:-))

> kickassso
well it seems that u r used to the word u said, as if u hv been addressed with that variant by ur juniors. ha ha.. i am used to the formal meaning u know ;-))

> thanu
hmmm.. :-) after all life is not just those great things happening to us. but it also lies in those simple unnoticed things which bring in a momemntary bliss to our mind. :-)

> jiby
so true man.. u knw that innocence is there in the little ones of any creature. hw innocent lookin is a tiger cub, even though it turns so dangerous once it grows up..

hope and love said...

such a lovely post..!!

i could see the boy with the tumbler..!
u write very well..

-Poison- said...

happened for real?

Aashi said...

So Good Jithu!!!....sometimes it is so satisfying to do small things and brighten up someone's day and bring them a smile..

Sujith said...

> HnL
hey doc, thank u very much.. :-)) so u also game to help him get some ice-cream?

> poison
nopes.. :-))

> rabbi
rabbiyetta thanx.. :-) bt i guess its u who shud treat all of us now..

> af
thnx yaar.. really; for us it wud like spending a penny or so bt for someone it will just make their day! :-)

Aashi said...

and hey JithU...i too just loooove ice-creams..so when am i gona get my ice cream treat??...any flavour would do,but if its a chocolate/mixed fruit then yum yum!!..hehe!!

Sujith said...

> af
ice-cream right! hold on from drooling.. lemme see whether there is something in the fridge.. ;-))

silverine said...

It is so sad that some kids are less fortunate than others. It is a given thing but sad and utterly frustrating nonetheless. I remember a function at a club in Bangalore where baloons and ice creams were distributed to members kids while two kids belonging to the construction workers who were working on the new wing of the Club played blissfully in a sand pile. I bought them both two ice creams, which they promptly shared with two other kids they went and called from somehwere.

Great post :)

venus said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
venus said...

I have understood that it is us people's responsibility to feed poors, whether they are in india or in US. govt can not really do anything about them, it is more complicated issue than we think. if you make someone's day, how happy the person at the receiving end would be, and how much happier you would be! bringing smiles on the less fortune faces gives you the most satisfaction!

Anonymous said...

:-)
Divs

Sujith said...

> silverine
yeah, the great divide!! dont know what they feel about themselves as compared to kids from non-poor family.. hey that is so adorable of u.. :-) and thank you very much.. :-)

> venus
its a social responsibility. at least in humanitarian consideration... after all there is nothing as adorable as bringing smiles to a person's face..

> divs
:-)))

Geo said...

Moane, great post. :_)

Anonymous said...

u've da power to write thin's in such a way dat it makes my heart skip a beat...evrytime i read ur posts. :)

. : A : . said...

Good post. Well written.

Sujith said...

> geo
hmm.. thnx dey.. :-)

> tangy
hmm.. thts great! thanx yaar.. :-)

> a
thnx man..

> thulasi
very true man.. a world of small things.. :-)

sinusoidally said...

The magic of ice turning into icecream :-) I know I am way older than that kid who came to your house but if you told me the same thing, I would have believed you too :-)

And it made me happy to see that you made his day! Good work jithu :-)

Mrudula said...

Well-written post. Thanks for dropping by my blog.

Mirage said...

Awww thats soo sweet of u!!! :)

Sujith said...

> fluttering eyes
ha ha.. hmmm.. thnk you dear.. :-)

> sinusoidally
hmmm... which means so convincing am i or so innocent are u? :-) thnx yaar..

> mrudula
thnk u mam..

> mirage
hey thnx yaar.. btw it was a story, so.. :-)

Anonymous said...

ok...now thats a sweet story. but was this a daydream in itself? :-))

Sujith said...

> chips
hey thanx! no it wasnt a day dream.. he he..

kickassso said...

@flutteringeyes...thnx :">

Mahdi said...

nice,full of hope and smiles.
ur character in the story is interesting;the one that helps.
u write nicely.

Sujith said...

> kickassso
hmm.. nadakkatte nadakkatte.. ;-)

> sheela_b
thank you very much.. and welcome to unCERTAINty!! see my comments on ur blog..

> ms
hellow! thank you.. oh thts just a story ;-))

Praveen said...

lovely post jithu! And a very noble act on your part!

Sujith said...

> sheela_b
hey thnx once again.. :-))

> praveen
thnx man.. btw it was a normal story, so my involvement.. :-)

> hiren
so true.. so really true in fact..

Sujith said...

> sheela_b
hey, a very happy diwali and new year to u too.. food from hotel or mess, crackers at LKP is all i can say abt our celebrations.. he he.. :-))

Invincible said...

Tht ws a touchy post and crafted nicely thru words too.

It was really sweet to give him the ice cream. I m sure the glint in his eyes after he got it from u was worth far more than the ice cream itself.

Happy Diwali mate !

Sujith said...

> invincible
thanx man... u r right there are somethings in this world that are more valuable than tangibles.. Happy Diwali to u too man..

Anonymous said...

very nice post... one of the few posts that I've read this week that really impressed me and sweet too.. nice!

Sujith said...

> injinuity
thnx man... and nice to hear those words from u.. :-))

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