S31: "The Little kite"

He was sitting in the balcony, his little hands holding the grills of the balcony. He was looking at the children who were playing on the street.

He stood up and ran inside the house to his dad and asked, ‘Is she out?’

His enthused innocent eyes were looking at his dad.

‘Not yet. You have to wait for six more months’ kittu’, he said and patted his hair.

‘Six more?’, kittu asked. His voice saddened and his eyes were looking down towards the floor.

‘It’s okay kittu, just six months. She is now too small to come out of mamma’s stomach. She needs to be big enough to come and play with you na’, he tried to persuade.

In the middle of the words, his mom came and smiled at him. He looked at her stomach, went closer and kissed her stomach and ran away.

He spent the whole evening sitting on the balcony and looking at the kids playing on the street.

There are bunch of boys who are mostly of his age, around 6years. There are all playing with the kites.

They saw kittu and waved at him but he didn’t respond. He ran into the house.

‘Why don’t you go and play with them? I know you love kites, go and play kittu’, his dad said.

Kittu just rejected the offer with his head nod and walked into his room.

That very evening, his dad bought him a new kite.

Kittu was very much into kites, the moment he saw the kite in his dad’s hand, he ran and pulled it.

‘Let’s go dad’, he cheerfully jumped.

‘You go and play. I’ll come’, his dad said.

Kittu went upstairs and was trying to figure out how to fly the kite. The kite was fluttering according 

to the stream of wind.

He held the string tightly with his hands and threw the kite down from his house. It didn’t fly. He jumped and jumped and jumped throwing it up in the sky. It didn’t fly.

He ran to his house to call his dad but he didn’t disturb his dad as he was taking care of his mom and the baby which was still inside his mom’s stomach.

He went down to the street and ran slowly leaving the thread. Finally it started to fly. He ran and ran to the end of the thread.

He stopped and pulled it back but it got stuck in a tree and torn into pieces. He walked back to his home with the broken kite. He didn’t talk to anyone. His broken kite made him more alone.

‘Why don’t you go and play with the other kids’, his mom asked.

‘No’, he said.

‘You know something. Yesterday, the baby asked about you. She is waiting to come outside and to play with you’, she said.

He turned to her with a brightened face, ’Really?’

‘Yes’, she said smiling.

He ran to his room and kept smiling to himself, ‘The baby loves me. I should make something for her before she comes’.

He took the broken kite and tried to make another new kite by looking at it.

Every Sunday, he made a new kite and kept running on the street to the end of the thread. Then he walks back to his house rolling the thread.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. The number of kites increased and so do the hopes.

He pasted all the kites to the walls of his room. His room is now full of colourful kites.

And the day came,

He was waiting eagerly for the baby.

He heard the car’s horn and ran outside. It was a little baby girl, tucked herself in the arms of his dad.

‘What do you want to name her?’, his dad asked him.

He kept looking at his mom and dad with a blank face.

‘Tell a nickname which you want to call her’, her mom asked.

Kittu ran to his room, brought a kite from his room and said,’ I want to call her kite’

‘Kite?’, his mom and dad both said at once.

‘Yes’, he smiled.

‘Okay’, they said and laughed aloud.

He glued some kites around her cradle and used to call her kite since then.

She grew up and the day which he always loved and waited for came: The kite festival.

He took her sister kite to the festival and handed the manja to her.

He threw the kite and pulled and managed it. He was extremely happy looking at his sister holding the manja and their kite flew higher and higher in the sky.