see no bad

Sitting in the hall with a nice cup of coffee in my hand I see what my mom is looking at.  The little girl on the terrace across the street is studying or so it looks like. Almost at once, we can see that she is hardly interested in studying, the book lies open beside her, the gentle breeze has already turned a few pages and yet she appears to be a picture of concentration staring at it. I wonder how she managed to go through the pages in the millisecond it takes the wind turned the pages.  I laugh out loud, my mom is clearly not impressed. While I am able to relate to the girl and visualize how she was told to ‘study’ up in the terrace where there is little disturbance whereas all she wanted was a relaxed morning and is now just waiting for her mom and dad to go to their respective offices. My mom meanwhile has vented out her frustration on how the current generation in heading out, the girl out there fooling her parents while they assume she is putting all her efforts for the upcoming examinations. She does not spare the parents of current generation also, they want to get their children out of the house and want peace inside, don’t take time to sit with the child and let her study and what. what other important job do they have other than making sure that their son or daughter is infact studying.  I am trying hard not to laugh at the antics of the girl who by now has even stopped pretending to study and is playing with a twig nearby and at short intervals throws a pebble or two at the pigeons which are feeding on the terrace. I tell my mom to stop worrying about the girl, I remind her that these days there is no concept of ‘fail’ in school and no matter what she writes in her annual exams she is sure to proceed to the next class anyways.

While the little girl is still engrossed in her studies, I notice movement in the adjacent terrace.  A couple of boys have come up. They roam around here and there picking a pebble here and there and throwing in on the pigeons.  They lose interest soon and settle down near the ladder.  The smaller kid brings out a matchbox and is lighting bits of paper. After two or three attempts, he loses interest in the paper, then he brings something from his pocket and lits it, I don’t see any fire but he seems to be satisfied. He then proceeds to take a puff from it, it is then I realize that he is holding a bidi.  This little boy who might not be a day over 7 or 8 years, wearing a pair of loose fitting pants which keep sliding down on his backside and has to be held in place ever so often is smoking. Not to be left behind the bigger kid brings out something from his pocket and lits it. He now holds a cigarette.  One puff at a time they are enjoying their new found cool game, while having nervous looks here and there. It goes on for few seconds before they see the studious girl from next door, who by now has fixed her eyes on something far more interesting than her drab book. Having been caught red handed, the boys quickly throw away their bidi and cigarette and go in deep defensive mode. They try to negotiate a deal with the girl and plead to her to not their parents. Until now they think she is the only person who has seen them smoking and hence they plead with her. They then notice that across the street there is a door opens and see me and my mom. They quickly strike a deal with the girl and run for cover. The girl not studying no longer appears a major thing to my mom now, I have nothing to say for the bidi boys and I quickly say something about meeting in office, have to go early and rush to the bathroom.  Whatever is said or put on the packs cigarette smoking is considered ‘cool’ by the people who smoke and is depicted as such in movies and serials and until this mindset changes among big people, little boys will keep becoming beedi boys and my mom will keep slapping her head at the state of affairs and blame rajnikanth for this even if I do put in my word of defense for rajnikanth and say that  off late he has been seen popping Parle G biscuits into his mouth rather than cigarettes with his unique style.