Pritam's Blog
Love Child
It’s not every day that you get a message from someone you least expected, someone you have almost forgotten, not because that person was not worth remembering but because you are lucky to come across many such wonderful people and it’s not possible to keep every single one of them in mind.
Anyway, the reason I am telling you all this is that you might think most of my stories are based on messages I receive on Facebook and it’s kind of boring. Even this story ‘happened’ because of a message I received last night and it was from someone I least expected. That makes it more special, at least for me.
Since my first year of engineering, I was involved with an orphanage in Bangalore. I love kids and I love to wade time playing with them, singing rhymes, etc. I still do it when I get time but back in those days, I used to go to that orphanage twice a week.
And there was this ten-year-old girl named Shahana. I was more sympathetic to her because her parents were not married when she was born. The father left them after a year. And the mother died when she was five years old. The worst thing was she knew about it all.
I remember when she told me about all these, I had consoled her saying that she was actually a lovechild, a child born out of love and not because of the ‘we are now married, so we SHOULD now have a child’ tradition.
Last night, she messaged me. I didn’t recognize her at first. She has grown up and looks different now. Moreover, her display name on Facebook is different, and she was not on my friend list.
The message read:
“Hi Pritam, at last, I found you. There are hundreds of Pritam on Facebook and I didn’t know your surname. Was dying to tell you something since it happened. A family, a couple in their late 40s, adopted me last year. They waited for all these years to have a child but it never happened. It seems they used to blame each other for it. Theirs was a sweet love marriage and the love was dying because of this.And then they decided to adopt…me… because by now a daughter would have been sixteen… I came to know about all these much later… They love me very much. And I love them too. And everything between them is now just fine. They say it’s because of me… Today I really feel I am a love child as you had said once… Thank you for making me feel special and helping me become what I am today, a lovechild. Since the day you told me this, it has always helped when I felt blue. You are the reason why I am being a good daughter today. And their love… But it started with you… Thank you.”
I replied to her and then I called my girl. I told her that I was looking for a story and I got one. And then I told her about Shahana.
She said with mock irritation that I could have asked her if I was looking for a story. It seemed she had a better one. I asked what. And she said, “Well, what could make a better story than the fact that I have someone like you?”
Do guys blush? Because I did. And I replied, “Yes actually. The fact that You love me so much can make a far better story. Because it’s because of you my pebbles turn into gems.”
This part is not irrelevant here. Because it’s my girl who had sent that family to that orphanage to adopt that girl when she came to know about them.