He Was Family

Boys don’t cry!

Do they …

They don’t ….  I dint cry

But he was family after all.

I dint talk much to him recently. I was a grown up now. Not a school going kid, who had ample time to play around, anymore. However we would exchange those concerned looks.

Did I say school, ah! What a beautiful time we had. I would hurry back home just to find him waiting for me, not sure if he did wait, but I would assume so. I would teach him how to catch the ball. He learnt it pretty well sooner than we expected. He would go catch it and get it back, only if that female dint cross his mind or way, otherwise he would follow her leaving the ball to its fate, which would, of course, be me getting it myself. He was a naughty fellow indeed.

And he was a terror. People literally feared to walk that way he went. Merely his sight would send a shiver down one’s spine. It won’t be exaggerating if I say that no one ever dared look him into his eyes. He remained unpredictable to us even. We never knew what make him happy and what made him sad. If he was too happy, he was too dangerous to mess around with. He caught my foot couple of times I tried messing, but was careful enough not to cause any damage as such. But he certainly left a fear in me and I started being careful not to play pranks.

We were all busy figuring and fixing our own lives that we forgot to spend time with him. The moment I g0t back home I buried myself into the 17” monitor surfing net like a mad man. Only when I went to the stairs that I remembered he was around. I wondered what he was feeling like. But was too busy to wait and enquire and would simply get back to the PC.  

Lately he was being sad and would go around the streets in search of his mates. He would return late at nights. Sometimes dint return at all.  I was too busy with my life that I barely noticed until today, at this point in time , when I realized what I have lost. That 24k idiot box would not shower the affection that he would have done. Had I spent all that time  with him, I would have left with sweet memories of his at least. I guess I would not forgive myself for that.

He is no more. A call to my home was answered by sad news. He was run over by a speeding school bus. He dint suffer much however. The death came almost instantly. Thank god he dint suffer that pain.

 But surely he left us all in pain. A vacuum occupied my thoughts the moment I heard the news. All the happy past flashed. Suddenly I was here and suddenly I was there.  I tried stopping the flow of thoughts that literally brought my world to standstill. I was no more concentrating on what I was doing. The world went numb.

We would call him KARAN, the unbeatable one. What if he was a dog, he was family after all.

And I dint cry.

Boys don’t cry.

But for those few drops that managed to slip out of my grip in trying to hold them back and which I quickly dried before anyone could see them.

Boys don’t cry, lest there would be no point in being a boy.

But he was family…..

He lacked the tongue but not heart.