The beautiful morning sun in the sky, the fragrant flowers of ‘Palash’, the cool morning breeze and the sweet chirp of birds all signified the advent of Holi season.
There were a lot of things going around me which in some way or the other kept me away from my studies. I was busy arranging the cushions when some conversation taking place in the courtyard caught my attention. I came out and saw a little girl of about ten years of age conversing with my mother. She said that she would do all he cleaning and washing of the house on a regular basis if we employed her as a house mate. After asking a few questions to the little girl my mother went in. I kept on standing there without uttering even a single word. I was busy watching the girl. There she stood at the gate in her tattered, shabby clothes. I could see the innocence of childhood on the sweet face of the girl, the white toothy smile like a lamp of light in the darkness of her dark skinned face, the great excitement in her eyes to know more and a little inquisitiveness to know me.
Suddenly, my mother called me bringing me back from my world of fantasy. She asked me to hand over the broom to the little girl to clean the lawn and then tell her to swab the floor too. And I don’t know why, I silently gave her the broom and came inside.
My conscience resisted at this. I told my mother I don’t like little girls working in the house. At this my mother scolded me and ordered me to get back to my studies. I revolted saying that supporting child labor is illegal but my mother’s scolding made my spirits die out. And I returned with a heavy heart to my study.
An hour or two passed. I suddenly noticed someone standing at the door of my room, and there she was, the same girl. She had come to clean my room but had been staring at me from quiet a long time. I looked at her for a while. Her eye seemed to have a lot of pain in them, they seemed to ask so many unanswered questions, they seemed to have something really precious in them. She stepped forward and was about to say something.
When the clock struck six in the morning and the alarm bell rang, waking me up. Oh! It was a dream. Even though it was a dream, it disturbed me. It has left a very deep impression on me and to my helplessness I am never to find her again. What was she about to tell me? It would always be a mystery. I still remember those glittering dark eyes. Those eyes still stare at me.
