A little heart.

 

Tittuuu, tittuuu, bachchaa, where are you my darling??'

Kamala was calling to her six years old grandson Tittu, she wanted him to have the lunch though there wasn’t much to eat, just a bit, but she wanted to make sure that he would eat it, because, sometimes it would be the sole meal they were having for the whole day, every passing minute was hard for them, there wasn’t any work to find, as she was too old to work, and the child was too small to work, Kamala firmly believed that she should give him a good education, but couldn't, as there was no money to be paid to the school. Some people gave her work, out of sympathy, that’s how she was able to find some money.

Tittu has been living with Kamala for five years, since his mother's death, she died of a snake bite when he was just one year old. His father was a drunkard, who could find some money only for drinking, therefore Tittu was sent to her grandma. Kamala has been trying hard to bring up the child, she struggled to find money for two of them even when it was hard to earn money for herself.

Tittu's father, Bijju was a man who spent his time by drinking toddy and roaming around the village to find some way to earn a bit of money. Though he lived in his own house, at times he comes to Kamala's when he was at a loss to find money, he comes and bothers her, asking for her earnings, when he was not given what he wanted, every so often he beat the old women, cursing. These was stopped by the neighbors who heard Tittu's loud crying and came to help.

Kamala was remembering these things and she felt a burning feeling inside, her eyes was overflowing with tears and hands were shaking. This was twentieth or thirtieth time she called Tittu, but there was no answer, she could see all the other children were playing, running, screaming and laughing on the road that was filled with lot of small puddles. Tittu was nowhere to be seen. She covered her head with tattered saree, came out of the shack, shivering, staggering and asked from some of the children and from the women who were squatting on the pavements of other shanties. No one has seen him.

Kamala was so sure that he was playing with his friends an hour ago, he was wearing his tattered, stained shorts. What has happened to him? Did someone kidnap him? How could it be happened before a bunch of people? She couldn't bear it anymore, she was sweating and shivering, she started crying and weeping sitting on the door step.

'Tittuuu, beta, where did you go, oh my god, my poor child, what happened to him? Tittuu come here beta, come to your daadee ma, god where is my son? oh my child'

Everyone was shocked to hear her whining and started to gather around their shabby, little hut. Some of the children, women and the few men rushed to find Tittu while others tried to calm her down, but no one could do it as the old women was overwhelmed with the misery. Also, Tittu was nowhere. Then they saw Bijju was scurrying towards the hut, having heard the news. He was dead drunk at the moment.

'You old bat, where is Tittu? Where did he go? Is this the way you take care of him? Tell me the truth, WHERE IS MY SON? DID YOU SELL MY SON TO FIND MONEY?'

Bijju was about to kick Kamala when villagers stopped him at full speed.  Kamala couldn't bear those words, she swallowed hard, stammering, she leaned against the wall, Bijju was still cursing and Kamala was about to faint when someone saw Tittu was coming at a distance.

Bijju was infuriated by seeing his son coming, when Tittu came closer, he caught him and started beating the poor scrawny boy. No one could go closer to save Tittu's skin, though Kamala wanted to go, she barely had a strength to rise to her feet. Tittu was howling.

'Where were you little bug? Tell me, where did you hide, don’t try to play with me, you rascal'

Tittu wasn’t given a chance to even answer. Finally, the village women started crying, begging not to hit the little boy and then only Bijju let his son go. Tittu tumbled over backwards and everyone made haste to gather around him, shrieking.

******************

At the night, Tittu was cuddling up to Kamala on a tattered piece of cloth on the cold floor. His body was glistening in the feeble light of candle as Kamala has applied oil on his bruises where his dad has beat him. The old woman knew he wasn't sleeping yet.

'Tittu, beta, tell me where did you go in the evening?'

Kamala asked, he was silent for a while, then he got up only with difficulty and sit on the floor and took something out of his pocket in his shorts, that was wrapped with a crumpled paper.

'Dadee ma, you always try to find food for me, but you barely eat, I don’t want you to stay hungry, so I went to find some food for you. Here it is'

He gave it to Kamala, while she was getting up. Inside the paper wrapping there was a sweet. Her heart started melting.

'Tittu, how did you get this? did you steal this?' She snapped.

'No daadee ma, I found a coin near the ground, i bought these with it, no one knew I found a coin there'

She was able to see the frankness in his eyes. She embraced her tightly while she felt the sharp sting of tears behind her eyelids.

(photo credits: Ravi Ranasinghe)