Superpowers

There used to be a little boy studying his 3rd class whose Mother went to work every single day. She used to prepare this boy for school and send to school in the morning in a cycle rickshaw packing him the lunch for the day, tying his shoe laces - the boy always wondered, "How does this shoe laces are tied?" this boy never learnt it himself, in school when he plays if the shoe laces come off, he just comes home carrying the shoes on his hand.

When he returns back from school, he just places the shoes in the shoe stand, puts his school bag in a corner and places his lunch box in the kitchen sink, just forgets to wash his hands or legs goes straight to a place where he knows his snacks would have been placed. He collects his snacks bounty and enjoys them which his Mother has carefully kept in a container.

Then he wanders around trying to play with people, all his friends are very mischievous, they either make fun of him, pull him, bully him but he never bothers, he just mingles with them plays their games, one day a friend of him told him that if he scratches his nose at the center with his index finger nail for 100 times, then he will pass the exams this year. This boy believing that scratched his nose 100 times with his index finger nail, wanting to score more he scratched it harder, he did not pass the exams, but got a very big scar in his nose the very next day.

After getting played at, like this by others, he comes back to his doorstep and waits for his mother to come back from work. He just stares the pathway near the door step awaiting her to return from office. As time passes, the sun is almost waving good night to everyone and is about to rest for the day.

The boy gets more curious and goes out of the doorstep and moves towards a open ground, people will be playing there in the open ground, he goes and stands on top a elevated stone which is a watch tower for him to see the people walking by and he tries to find his mother in the crowd.

The buses come and go, people walk out of the bus and cross the place, there will be some resemblances of his mother in the crowd, He starts to smile and eagerly jump, only to realize that it was not her.

He stands for sometime and then sits in that stone playing with the sand, then suddenly, as the lights in the nearby homes start to flash, the street lights slowly come up, still the evening sun light would be there but the street lights are also up.

By then, there is this bus with all it's internal lights turned on and his mother slowly gets up from her seat, he only gets a glimpse of her but he has no doubt this time, He just jumps high and starts to run from that stone and runs at full speed almost like he was flying in the air to reach to her. He just flies towards her without even looking back, because he clearly knew even at a very long distance that was his mother.

He rushes towards her, she smiles looking at him, He does not even look at her, but just goes and holds her legs with his both hands and closes his eyes and buries his face in her saree and breaths the smell of her saree without even looking up, even without looking at her, he gets the confirmation that it was his mother.

His mother slowly smiles and raises his head and combs his hair on the forehead and asks him "What happened?, did you miss me?" that moment of joy that runs in his nerves, It can't be explained. The blood rushes into his body like a warm river and there will be such a warmth that will bring him smile and he wants to ask her "Why you made me wait so long?", they both smile at each other and then he just walks with her till the home jumping around, playing with stones and sand, she scolds him not to get the dirt onto the clothes and legs, while walking back she tries to buy some essentials for the home and also buys him something to eat. He just jumps and asks for more things, she says that's enough for today..

Then, his mother makes an evening drink for herself and for her son and they both go and sit near a window from where they can hear the Television programmes that are running in other houses. Every single day, they both have this habit of sitting behind this window that is open but covered with a screen and listen to these programmes for sometime. His mother relaxedly has the evening drink and listens to the programmes and smiles to herself. But, this boy does not understand anything, he just keeps asking his mother, why she was laughing, she just pushes him and asks him to go and do his homework. He reluctantly takes a school book and acts as if he is reading but all that he does is just watching what his mother is doing.

After sometime, his mother starts to cook dinner, he immediately takes the book and goes to the kitchen and starts asking questions like "What is the dinner today?" His mother yells at him "Did I not ask you to go and do the Homework?", "What did they teach you in school today?" and "You were supposed to get your term exam results today right!?, Where are they...?" He slowly shows his results where it is marked as "Fail" and he has scored 20/100.

His disappointed mother, looks at him and does not know what to tell. She just asks him, "Why are you like this?, look at others, how smart they are?, you always disappoint me, you don't read, you always play..." she just fries the mustard seeds in oil and along with that she is also mimicking the reaction of the mustard seeds that are breaking in the hot oil.

This boy just watches this, goes inside and brings a small Radio box and plays some programme in it, his mother gives a fierce stare at him but slowly calms down and asks him to take a plate and sit down for dinner...

This boy takes a plate and sits down for dinner, his mother is serving him Dosas, he just eats, eats, eats,... his mother suddenly yells at him.. "Eat slowly.. the Dosa takes time to cook.." This boy smiles at her and his mother also now looking at his smile, smiles at him and combs his hair and says "if you don't read properly how will you survive in this world?"..

He says "I will just eat Dosas and survive..." she smiles at him and says "you can't be playful like this., you need to take things serious." He asks his mother "is the Dosa ready??" she smiles at him and offers him the Dosa.

Though he was just studying his 3rd class, he never passes an exam, once he did pass and he ran with the report card to his mother, and told her this time I passed and I also got a Rank this time, he was happy, she eagerly opened the report card which usually shows "Fail" in all terms except this time it showed "Pass" she was happy about that, when she saw what Rank this boy has scored, he came 38th Rank, in a classroom of 39 people, he scored the last rank this time, first from the last, the other person did not take the exams it seems. Still, his mother was Happy.

Days have passed now, this boy has grown up now, some how secured a living for himself. He might not have made his Mother so very proud, but he is surviving.

However, he has a little new born daughter now of whom he is so proud about. This little daughter is making him do things which otherwise he would not even have tried. His mother is smiling and realizing how he is changing now, when he wants to build something for his daughter he is taking things seriously, she is now confident his son will build something for his daughter. Either way she feels happy. She just wonders how this tiny little kid has so much power over him which she herself could not have on him.

His mother wonders, this little kid is just giggling and smiling at him, he is already finding so much energy to run around and try so many things for his little kid. She has not even called him "Papa" once, just imagine when she calls him "Papa", I can't imagine what will change in him.... She also adds.. "I have watched movies where ordinary people get extraordinary powers, this little kid is his super power!!!!"