An Encounter with a Charismatic slum Girl.
12 August'11 around 8:30 am: I reached Junagadh after a long 14 hours journey from Valsad on a Bus. The journey was exhausting but knowing that I will have to wait another hour for my driver to receive me at the same spot, I got off the bus, took my bags, and sat in the Bus departure office near the entrance door. A usual thing for me to do. Feeling the dirt all over my face, I went to the washroom to wash my face. Meanwhile, I left my water bottle on the chair, and when I came back, the bottle was gone!! I searched for it and saw a slum boy holding the same bottle. I smiled at him, and he smiled back since he knew it belonged to me. I let him go with it thinking he was just a kid and would use the bottle for the best.
I had no hint of what unusual was going to happen the next moment. I took out my novel to read, hoping the time would fly by. It was "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a prolific and versatile writer, of course. Suddenly a slum-girl, probably 8 yrs old, appeared from nowhere. She just stood in front of me with a begging hand, but I pretended to pay no attention to her act and continued reading. She was determined, I surmise. She came near to me and looked at my book queerly. I got a bit annoyed but choose to be calm. There was silence between us, but then I thought to break the ice by giving a smile. She smiled sheepishly in return, just like the slum boy whom I met a moment ago. "Aa su che?" (what is this?), she asked in her pure Gujarati language, pointing her finger at the book. I answered her in my not-so-good Gujarati, "Aa book che"(this is a book). I still don`t know if the sentence was grammatically correct, but she nodded. It was a terrible feeling to communicate with her in Gujarati, but I wanted to use my skills to their best and be polite with her as I saw the fear of something in her eyes. I asked her name to which she retorted, "MANISHA." I got flabbergasted !! it was a very nice name, a slum-girl could ever have. Wanting to know more about her out of my curious nature, I closed my book and started to talk with her. She saw the cover page of the book bearing a picture of the author and asked, "Aa Kaun manas che?" (who is this man?).Hearing this I got to know that even she was curious to know more. Hence I decided to give her a bit of knowledge of what actually a book is. She was witty and was a smart girl and the only thing she wanted was a note of five rupees from me. But I decided to give her something else. I chatted with her asking about her family, her school and according to her, she was a student of class 5, to which I disagreed as she looked about 8 yrs old. I asked if she knew alphabets and she called out A, B,C, D and then paused. Clearly, she didn`t know what came after that. So I thought to teach her the alphabet. I took a pen and a paper out of my bag and wrote A-Z. She looked a bit perplexed as she had no idea what I was doing. I then showed her the paper and asked her to repeat the alphabet after me. She spelled each alphabet like me as if trying to copy with the same gestures I was giving. Sort of amusing but I was happy as she was not being reluctant to what I asked her to do. After that, I taught her the counting from 1 to 10 with the fingers and noticed her worn-out nail paint. Slumgirls too are fashionable I thought. She was a smart girl indeed. "I want to go now", she said but I asked her to wait. I looked around for a shop and saw a tea stall. I asked if she had tea that morning and she said " NO". I took her to the tea stall and ordered two cups of it. The chaiwala saw my gesture and offered her two pieces of bread toast. She gleefully accepted it and sat on a bench with her tea. She placed the toast on the bench which was not clean so I asked her to keep them on the saucer instead. I was being very polite to her, and I think that was why she obliged me every time. While she was having her tea, I thought to take a picture of her as a remembrance of my encounter with her. Don`t know if she faced a camera before but she couldn`t manage to give a smile. I took 3 pictures of her and finally in the 4th one I directed her to give a nice smile and she did!! snap..!!!! it was a nice pic which I have attached (her five rupees note can be seen in the pic). Well!! I came back to the office where I was waiting and she came back to me after finishing her tea. She showed me her hands. I wondered what was worth noticing. But it clicked that her note was gone. She then spoke of it saying she paid for herself. I got flabbergasted again. I went to the Chaiwala again to confront him for taking money from her when I already paid him for it. He said she will take tea for her family afterward but she said "I didn`t say anything like that". I looked angrily at the Chaiwala and he returned the note to her without saying any word. How crooked that Chaiwala would be. Manisha got very happy to get her note back and we both then came to the office. She again asked me "what is this", this time pointing to the braces I was wearing. I giggled at that one as I had to give her an answer, which I doubted she would understand. So I just told her that it's called braces to align the teeth like hers. She had small well-aligned teeth :). She was being sweet and told me that her home was behind the office area and said "I am going now.". I knew she intended to go before also, so this time waved her goodbye. "TATA", I said and she replied with the same tone and gestures. A cute smile she gave me and I only hoped for her best future. It was very nice to meet her and I wish I could say that to her. All she wanted was five rupees from me, but I truly will cherish the memories of her. I waited for 10 mins more for my driver to come, looking at my watch it was 10:00 am.
I had no hint of what unusual was going to happen the next moment. I took out my novel to read, hoping the time would fly by. It was "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a prolific and versatile writer, of course. Suddenly a slum-girl, probably 8 yrs old, appeared from nowhere. She just stood in front of me with a begging hand, but I pretended to pay no attention to her act and continued reading. She was determined, I surmise. She came near to me and looked at my book queerly. I got a bit annoyed but choose to be calm. There was silence between us, but then I thought to break the ice by giving a smile. She smiled sheepishly in return, just like the slum boy whom I met a moment ago. "Aa su che?" (what is this?), she asked in her pure Gujarati language, pointing her finger at the book. I answered her in my not-so-good Gujarati, "Aa book che"(this is a book). I still don`t know if the sentence was grammatically correct, but she nodded. It was a terrible feeling to communicate with her in Gujarati, but I wanted to use my skills to their best and be polite with her as I saw the fear of something in her eyes. I asked her name to which she retorted, "MANISHA." I got flabbergasted !! it was a very nice name, a slum-girl could ever have. Wanting to know more about her out of my curious nature, I closed my book and started to talk with her. She saw the cover page of the book bearing a picture of the author and asked, "Aa Kaun manas che?" (who is this man?).Hearing this I got to know that even she was curious to know more. Hence I decided to give her a bit of knowledge of what actually a book is. She was witty and was a smart girl and the only thing she wanted was a note of five rupees from me. But I decided to give her something else. I chatted with her asking about her family, her school and according to her, she was a student of class 5, to which I disagreed as she looked about 8 yrs old. I asked if she knew alphabets and she called out A, B,C, D and then paused. Clearly, she didn`t know what came after that. So I thought to teach her the alphabet. I took a pen and a paper out of my bag and wrote A-Z. She looked a bit perplexed as she had no idea what I was doing. I then showed her the paper and asked her to repeat the alphabet after me. She spelled each alphabet like me as if trying to copy with the same gestures I was giving. Sort of amusing but I was happy as she was not being reluctant to what I asked her to do. After that, I taught her the counting from 1 to 10 with the fingers and noticed her worn-out nail paint. Slumgirls too are fashionable I thought. She was a smart girl indeed. "I want to go now", she said but I asked her to wait. I looked around for a shop and saw a tea stall. I asked if she had tea that morning and she said " NO". I took her to the tea stall and ordered two cups of it. The chaiwala saw my gesture and offered her two pieces of bread toast. She gleefully accepted it and sat on a bench with her tea. She placed the toast on the bench which was not clean so I asked her to keep them on the saucer instead. I was being very polite to her, and I think that was why she obliged me every time. While she was having her tea, I thought to take a picture of her as a remembrance of my encounter with her. Don`t know if she faced a camera before but she couldn`t manage to give a smile. I took 3 pictures of her and finally in the 4th one I directed her to give a nice smile and she did!! snap..!!!! it was a nice pic which I have attached (her five rupees note can be seen in the pic). Well!! I came back to the office where I was waiting and she came back to me after finishing her tea. She showed me her hands. I wondered what was worth noticing. But it clicked that her note was gone. She then spoke of it saying she paid for herself. I got flabbergasted again. I went to the Chaiwala again to confront him for taking money from her when I already paid him for it. He said she will take tea for her family afterward but she said "I didn`t say anything like that". I looked angrily at the Chaiwala and he returned the note to her without saying any word. How crooked that Chaiwala would be. Manisha got very happy to get her note back and we both then came to the office. She again asked me "what is this", this time pointing to the braces I was wearing. I giggled at that one as I had to give her an answer, which I doubted she would understand. So I just told her that it's called braces to align the teeth like hers. She had small well-aligned teeth :). She was being sweet and told me that her home was behind the office area and said "I am going now.". I knew she intended to go before also, so this time waved her goodbye. "TATA", I said and she replied with the same tone and gestures. A cute smile she gave me and I only hoped for her best future. It was very nice to meet her and I wish I could say that to her. All she wanted was five rupees from me, but I truly will cherish the memories of her. I waited for 10 mins more for my driver to come, looking at my watch it was 10:00 am.
"Hey!" someone called and it was Manisha, who came out of the blue. I thought she went but she didn`t. She came up to me and asked my name. I smiled and said "VIDHIKA". Both our names were rhyming and she pronounced the name without any flaw. I must admit she had good pronunciation too. as nobody pronounces my name clearly in one go. I got impressed by her. She then finally went to her home I guess. After some time my elder brother came to the office from Rajkot. He was to accompany me home and I told him about the encounter. He too was glad to know that I taught her something and offered tea instead of giving money. There was a sense of goodness prevailing in my heart and the satisfaction of doing good. We (me and my brother) waited for another 5 minutes and our wait got over after that. Our driver came and we drove off to Home. On the way, I was thinking about Manisha and also that there would be so many like her in the world. I hope to help as many, like her.
My note has come to an end, but I am looking forward to doing charity for educating slum children after this encounter. I also learned that unlike me, these Children become very smart after getting exposed to worldly crookedness too early. When I was of her age, I was very naive. I stand nowhere near Manisha if compared. I now call her CHARISMATIC, which she is worth calling.
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