Small Expectations

"This is the oppurtunity cost of education, mosquito bites, compressing temperature and no candles"- I grunted, looking in the direction of my sister who had impressively pulled her salwar to cover her feets from fire-red mosquito bites, almost looking like a ghost with tangled feets in the serenity of darkness. Both of us were waiting in a teacher's place, waiting for the electricity to turn up.

The verandah was enclosed in nets, with square gaps so big that you could almost look at your left and right with one of them, clear and swift. Uncomfortable for me it was, I wasn't habituated with strolling on the verandah so late at night. Even with that, the slippery cold of the floors thrashed against my feet, felt soothing. The babble of hawkers and grocery shop owners from below, enveloped the air. One of them repeatedly counted five ten taka notes. Failing to disrupt his concentration a women who had her grown-up daughters hand crossed the road much to everyone else's indifference. Meanwhile, the jam worsened. Two more men had taken to the street, in distinguished hope that they would be able to reduce the traffic by screaming, standing before cars and knocking at car windows.

My chemistry teacher's younger daughter, Adrita, she was playing a small flute which her parents' bought her, most probably from a mela. Adrita, whose age I couldnot assume, has a sweet face and eyes of spark. Never before did I get the time to chat with her because she is undoubtedly intellegient for her age. Thus, charmed by Adrita, all of us present in that spacious room, took our turns in playing the flute. For some it was only a squeak and few of us actually played mesmerizing, unheard tunes. Next, she made us scribble our names on litmus papers which I later upon enquiry found, that she darkened, all the letters.

When I came back home, I contemplated on how my day had been as a part of the routine that I follow, to grow myself more accountable and concious of the life around me. This thing struck me: childrens' expectations from life is as generous as they are. They only want to be loved and run around people who they find warmth in. However, life is so demanding, either from the materialistic sense of being or the prospect of oppurtunities before us, we fail to find time for our soul's small expectations. Most probably, you can't fulfill it from a soul mate, from a sibling, a job or a success- it's in a green icecream, a swing that you always wanted to hop in, an evening sleep you never get but you can today.