M feared two things most in her life- snails and parades. Interestingly she started fearing both on the same day- on a Dasara day of years back. Little M had found place amidst dada and mama beside Sissy on that day to see the palace, its King, his men, their horses, its adornments… they were not far from the front row. When people rushed them from behind, they had more rows before them. Sitting beside them a beefy man with his garlanded wife talked incessantly in a language which Little M never heard earlier. As soon as she stretched neck to see them, mama pinched her on thighs. With welts on thigh, she watched them sideways without mama noticing it.She didn’t like the king. She had thought he would be a man with curled moustache, bejeweled and with ministers and courtesans always attending to him. His beaded turban was the least interesting (she always thought a king has crown, not turban). She felt like crying (or did she really cry some ignored tears?) as she was reminded of her beaded necklace which Jesitha.J of 2B broke on a sporty evening. Searching in the frock pocket for the mickeymoused hanky (which mama never forget while dressing little M up) to wipe her eyes, she realized she lost that. She gasped in a way she had seen her mama gasping on hearing Letty aunty’s death. More pinches, more welts on her plumpy thighs.
The mickeymoused hanky was the first among the loss. She knew about the second when the cavalry passed them followed by school girls, waving colorful ribbons. The hairpin that tucked her messy strands of hair behind her ears was pair-less. It was just after she fought with Sissy so mama said “okay... fight and cry”. She didn’t fight. That hairpin- DeepakMaman gave to stop her from crying on a day when dada mama and Sissy went to watch New Bombay circus- was her favorite. So she cried.
