THE BUCKET LIST

“hello, hello yes mom I caught the train”

“Mom I already had the reservation , I don’t need to search for a seat.”

“yes, I will call you when I reach .” akash hung up his phone.

But he found it filled with people sitting even on them. when he looked around he confirmed that train is packed even in reservation compartment. He looks exhausted , it is middle of summer and Indian summers are too much heat.

“I should quickly get to my seat”, he thought to himself. when he found it he saw a middle aged woman sitting there with a little boy. On one side ,his brain urging him “let’s leave them there”,  on other side his exhausted body wants him to sit down. well exhausted side won.

“excuse me,this is my seat could you please get up”, he asked the woman with child in a polite tone.

May be she knew it’s not her place to sit, she asked him if he could allow the little boy to sit beside him.

Akash nodded to it as if he could satisfy his brain by allowing a little child to sit with,as he got a single seater it is not difficult for him to have a child ,who was may be four ,to sit on his lap.

Although he got place to sit, but he is so uncomfortable, there was lot of noise. he couldn’t take rest, so as any person in the train he decided began light conversation with fellow passenger who was sitting opposite to him .he had a little girl who is licking her ice cream without spilling a drop even in this heavy chaos.

“hello,is it your daughter, she is so cute “akash started a light conversation on a casual note.

“yes she is, she likes ice cream a lot, so she will not speak to us anytime now”, the other passenger replied as if akash was starting conversation with her .of course akash didn’t take it weirdly because he had no options . continued to chat with the person .they started with where are you going ? what are you doing? To work frustrations , problems of politics, international peace and all. Time was not passing quickly because obvious it’s summer. But the crowd has relatively decreased as the stations passed.

“we will get off in next station,” the other passenger told akash .akash waved goodbye to other passenger, his little girl and his wife, who is never noticed by akash until  five minutes before their departure as they got off the train. while they were talking .

the middle aged woman whose child is sitting on akash lap sat on the same spot of the other passenger wife which is a three seater. she called for her son. akash thought he will be relived but the son refused to go to his mom because there is no window where she was sitting.

That kid in his lap reminded akash his child self. for the first time akash looked down at the kid after boarding the train. Then he saw a paper a little one was holding. .on top of the paper for sure with glitter pen the words are written. “ THE BUCKET LIST ”.

After Akash looked up at the title ,he was reluctant to let go of  the boy, so he just nodded and smiled at the mother signalling her that it is fine. The little boy was scribbling on his paper with a very serious look in his eyes.

As if he knew Akash was looking at him, the little boy brought the paper close to him and once again began scribbling. But Akash could saw the list with his peripheral vision ,as he was acting he didn’t care about that.

It contained.

1)  When I grow up as big as the brother in my neighbourhood I have big lollipop.

2)  When I grow up I will decide who will bat and who will bowl in my game of cricket.

3)  When I grow big I will buy beautiful crayons for me and Rishitha , so that she don’t have to share Ajay’s crayons.

When akash saw that he couldn’t help himself but laugh.

 4)when I grow up I will have as much as chicken  and cake I want on my birthday.

5)when I grow up I will take my mother to shopping in her favourite cloth store

6) when I grow up I will eat chocolate ice cream. 

“oh it was the ice cream that little girl had before”,

7)when I grow up I will more money to full fill everything, as the brother on the train.

Akash stopped there, the little boy was still scribbiling , “is that me?”, akash thought to himself.it surprised him.

Many thoughts swirled around his brain. He does have the money, but he couldn’t eat any ice cream because he is afraid of diabetes. he could buy as much as chicken he want but he was afraid of indigestion and gaining weight. He sure earned more money and bought beautiful saree to his mother but he had no time to take his mother to shop in her favourite shopping center. He had money to buy a nice watch to his father, but his father was no more. He doesn’t even had time to sleep peacefully.

His thoughts got stopped with his phone vibrating in his pocket. he picked it up.

“Akash it is raining here, call us when you are near to station, uncle will come pick you up,”his mother voice sounded lovely to him.

“okay mom I will call you”,akash responded when a cool breeze hit him. then he saw black clouds began to form all over a slight drizzle started.

“mom , let’s go shopping tomorrow “akash said suddenly.

“ what happened to you? didn’t you say after attending the pooja you will board the train immediately.” the voice came as if she is flustered.

“no, I will just apply leave for few days” Akash replied.

“okay, you… just come home for now ,will talk about that later”, his mother voice sounded doubt full.

Before hanging up the phone, he heard his mom say “close the window don’t get wet”.

Before he could react the little boy’s mother had shut the window because her son is getting wet.

“I am sorry it’s just he will easily get ill ,” she told Akash in sorry tone. Aakash smiled at her.

For the next stop , the little boy and his mother got off the train. there were just five or six people remained in coach as next is last stop and his destination.

Akash took out a small piece of paper out of his wallet, which was almost crumpled.it read

“ THE BUCKET LIST”. He crossed out the one which read  “get wet in the rain .”

He opened the closed shutter closing his eyes, the rain droplets greeted him , As if welcoming to the new world. he opened his eyes to the beautiful scenario with the green fields moving along with the wind as if waving him bye.