Innocent eyes
The rusted iron gate creaked open and the small feet of Anshu rushed one behind the other towards the busy lane. A few steps forward, Anshu’s eyes missed to see the stone in front of her feet leading her to trip and fall before she could reach the road. The maid came rushing towards Anshu, picked her up and searched for scratches and bruises. In a fit of rage, Anshu wiggled and loosened the maid’s grip, jumped back to where she had fallen and laid down in the exact same position as she was when she fell. While doing this, she started shouting out for her mother and did not let the maid touch her further. Anshu’s mother on seeing what she had done, picked Anshu up and questioned her behavior. Anshu, with her innocent eyes, looked at her mother and said that her ‘boo-boo’ would go away only if her beloved mother picked her up and not anyone else.
Disappointed eyes
One fine day a few years later, Anshu, a teenager now was returning home from school. Her cousin sister was visiting them for a few days and Anshu looked forward to spending time with her. When she entered home, she sensed that something was amiss. She dropped her bag and shoes in their respective places, freshened herself up and went in search of her cousin. When she reached her room, Anshu was terrified to find her cousin going through her cupboard. Anshu not wanting to be rude, greeted her sister and asked her if she needed help with something. By then, Anshu’s mother entered and told her that her cousin was looking for something to do while she was away and found a few things. Anshu noticed a change in her mother’s eyes and her heart skipped a beat. A few moments of thought later, Anshu realized what the things were that her cousin had found which caused her mother to have a look of disappointment in her eyes. Anshu had a habit of writing down her thoughts in a diary. She had written her darkest secrets and feelings in it and had hidden it under a few textbooks. The diary had Anshu’s feelings towards her boyfriend in school and she saw it lying on a table next to her cupboard. Her cousin had read her diary and had connivingly shown it to Anshu’s mother.
In her late-teenage years and other years to come, Anshu confides everything in her mother. But the moment Anshu saw her mother’s eyes and her mother hers when the diary had come to light was terrifying to both; because they realized that Anshu for the first time had hidden something from her mother.
Wise eyes
A decade and a couple of years later in the delivery room, Anshu was shouting out for her mother. Her mother who was outside the room, had trembling hands that were strengthened by her own mother. A few moments before Anshu was taken to the delivery room in her ward, she was shouting for the nurses to come with the doctor. Anshu’s mother was running hither tither in search of the disappeared nurses. Anshu kept saying that she knew it was time, but the nurses assumed it to be false alarm. Her mother knew it too just looking at Anshu. Both Anshu and her mother had the same fear – that the baby would come out right there in the wardroom and everyone would become helpless with fear.
Finally, after shouting for what felt like an eternity, Anshu gave birth to a healthy, crying baby. And it was Anshu in the delivery room and her mother outside, questioning if the baby was a girl. All others were sure that Anshu had birthed a boy. But Anshu had always wanted a girl and her mother knew it would be a girl right from the beginning of her pregnancy. When Anshu was brought out of the delivery room after a few hours, both her and her mother’s eyes were filled with happiness. Anshu saw her mother smile at her. It was the smile that brought hope in Anshu that one day in the future, she would see her daughter smile at her with her wise eyes and that she would be her daughter’s best confidant.