Blind Destiny

Cuddled and hugged tight, you could feel the soft breath on your cheeks. The sheets half covering you both. You are enjoying this moment. You wish you could tell her how grateful you are by trying to rewind the  incidence of your life so as to not be left with any regret.

“A beautiful rainbow color frock,sparkling blue eyes, a pink hair band, neat white sandals and a slight pout in the lips and red cheeks, you are ready my dear Mini” the worker in the doll factory looked satisfied and felt proud. You look so cute surely any mother would love to have you for her little daughter.

The worker picked up Mini from the work table gently like a baby from the crib and placed her in the big brown carton along with other assorted toys like a stuffed puppy, a naughty penguin, a boy with a brown hat, a grey fat jumbo and a tall brown spotted giraffe with gleaming black eyes and a pink bunny strangely with a red tail.

“Hi you are the cutest doll that I ever saw.Now you and me will travel together and go to the far away land beyond the seven seas, rolling in a big ship, flying in the air and reach our destination” said the funny looking pink bunny which was always adjusting its right button eye probably stitched loose.

“Ouch ! where are you bunny I can’t see a thing”, you cried. Hey relax you are packed in a carton and better you adjust to the darkness. Later you would reach a beautiful land with bright sunshine, green forests, birds singing all the day and you would hear the gurgle of never ending streams and be in the arms of a little girl who would put you in her doll house,” your new friend bunny assured you.

God knows how many days ,these toys stayed in the brown carton and one fine morning, the carton reached a huge warehouse and where a merciless young worker tossed the carton of toys may be in a van, since there was no instructions or the picture of a wine glass indicating ‘FRAGILE ‘. “You are worried that your hair band might slip or one of your shoes might fall away in all this rough handling. But see all other toys also look distraught especially the fat grey jumbo struggling for space and the tall giraffe for height craning it’s tall neck”, commented your new found friend bunny with strange red tail.

Slowly the van inched through the traffic of the big city and reached the storehouse of the majestic shopping Mall located in the downtown.

The Mall offered everything under one roof. Chocolates, assorted biscuits, fruit juice, soft drink bottles in the first section of the Mall with attractive discounts and offers. Next neat rows of dry fruits like almonds, cashews, pistachios and many more whose name one learnt first time in the Mall.

Followed by variety of pulses, spices, bags of flours, edible oils and even the insignificant salt packets arranged neatly.

Further down huge freezers consisting of frozen peas, yogurt, milk, butter, cheese, frozen precooked food items like, roti, parathas, finger chips and of course protein drinks.

Then came the interesting section —clothes for men, women and children, with sale offers like “Buy three and get one free” and boasting of latest designs as per the current fashion. Shoes, accessories, and of course luggage cases as if to help the customer to buy the things and carry in those colorful, molded luggage with 360 degree wheels defeating even the nocturnal owl which can just move its head only 270 degrees, and of course all at tempting prices.

A big section of the Mall was reserved for the children since the Mall was called “ Your Child’s world" targeting Parents who are always ready to please their little ones and would do anything for them or buy any expensive stuff.

Now came that brown carton with all those toys which traveled overseas from that little factory, at last was opened . A young saleswoman picked up each toy to display it on the shelf. The boy with the brown hat, the naughty penguin, the stuffed puppy, the grey fat jumbo, the tall giraffe and other toys were given their places.

“You need not blink your eyes any more. Adjust your eyes to the lights. You are feeling as if its your second birth and the carton was the dark womb of your mother which protected you from all the jerks of the harrowing journey. You surely will find the best place in the shelf and anyone would buy you instantly and you would get a loving home unlike me with pink body and strange red tail”,expressed the bunny bit sadly.

The young sales girl with no smile on her face, who had a fresh argument  with her boyfriend , was in no mood to appreciate the toys or their colors , and was placing them mechanically. Poor You!  unfortunately not even given a decent place on the shelf. You were half hidden between a stuffed dinosaur and ugly green frog. You somehow felt both of them had terrible smell since the dinosaur was from prehistoric age and the frog lived in dirty ponds. But what matters now was patience but suddenly the light were off, closing time and all you toys were left in deathly silence.

The next morning the Mall opened an hour earlier to accommodate the rush of shoppers for the Diwali festival which was around the corner. The voices of the sales persons, followed by floor Manager’s booming instruction, the cashiers setting right their cash machines and of course the workers trying to clean the last speck of dust or dirt of the previous evening shoppers.

You were always proud of your rainbow frock, was enjoying all these sounds. Your heart felt that today surely someone would take you home. Don’t bother about the ugly dinosaur and smelly frog. Rather your beauty is glowing more between them. Your line of thought suddenly got disconnected with a group of children rushing towards the toy section.

Little hands some soft , some rough started feeling each toy as if they were vegetables in the market which are usually felt and tossed more before they are bought. One fat little fellow picked up the jumbo , then went the giraffe .You don’t have to be sad - look at the beautiful girl coming towards you. Your heart was beating fast and you were shaking with excitement when the little fingers started caressing you. Control yourself. See she picked you up now and walking towards the cash counter.

The little girl carried you lovingly and stood near her mother who was at the cash counter. one more step, bar code will be scanned and the money would be paid and you would be free at last and find a home. You were floating on cloud nine. Suddenly you had a rude shock. The mother, bit of a stocky lady glared at the girl with long pigtails and snatched you from her hand, and threw you in the basket consisting of all those extra stuff which people rejected at the cash counter. You heard the mother shouting at the girl for having too many dolls and there was nothing extraordinary about you.

You were hurt. The mother never even bothered to look at your beautiful blue eyes, frock with rainbow colors and your delicate white sandals. So heartless! The mother and daughter left and the whole day you lay in the basket waiting for the sales girl to sort out all those left out articles and put them back in their respective shelves.

Only on the next day, you were back to your place between the two ugly creatures. Your hair band was gone, may be lost in the basket. Never mind! and you patiently waited. Again a set of children came and each tried to pull a toy from the rack. This lot seemed to be very naughty, trying to pull a tail, or eyes of the poor toys. One fellow even pulled the tongue of the smelly ugly frog.

 One  of the boys took you, turned you upside down, pulled out one of your sandals and threw at his friend. You were left like Cinderella with one shoe. No one bought a single toy. The mothers were busy buying cosmetics and did not bother to notice the pranks of the children. Your frock also got crumpled up but still you hoped that somebody would buy you. Give you a nice neat home and loving arms to hold you , hug you and care for you.

On the previous evening of the festival, the shopping Mall was decorated with colorful lights. Lot of paper streamers in different patterns flew down from the roof. The entire Mall had a new look. The chief manager himself inspected every shelf and advised changes wherever required. Then he came to the children’s section and looked at the toys. There was an unhappy look on his face. He saw one doll with hair band and and a shoe missing and the frock was crumpled and dirty, the dinosaur’s tail twisted, the frog had no tongue and the boy and lost his brown hat and bunny with strange red tail.

He immediately called his assistant and asked them to pack all those toys in a carton and send it to the nearest toy bank , so that less fortunate kids can have the pleasure of playing with the toys. The carton from the toy bank was sent to an orphanage. All children came running to pick up a toy of their choice and all the toys vanished in no time. But poor You , there were no takers and you wondered what fate was in  store for you. Even your friend, adviser and well-wisher the bunny with red tail was too gone.

Suddenly a small soft hand groped in the carton and found You and lovingly lifted you and placed a moist kiss on your forehead. You felt happy that at last someone was impressed with your blue eyes, rainbow colored frock, your single delicate sandal. You expected to hear your beauty to be praised by that little soft hand.

But you heard the teacher calling the  soft hands which clutched you so firmly and asked her “Did get your doll? Are you happy Ruchi?”  Ruchi, the skinny, dark looking girl, no one knew who had left her in a rickety crib of the orphanage. The little sweet voice replied , “ I am so happy that I got this beautiful doll”. Her friends laughed at her. But you were happy to be hugged by those soft arms and knew that Ruchi and you would be best friends forever. For both of you touch mattered since your blue eyes were beautiful glass beads and her brown eyes were beady for the Supreme Creator forgot to give light in them.  As for words , your silence is more powerful than sound.