Hide and Seek!

“You'll be doing yourself a big favor by not burning your eye lashes and hair if you sit a little away and read. The candle light is flickering violently.” 


I heard it, and as usual, just turned to see mom looking at me with a worried expression on her face. “OK…” my monosyllabic answer and the taking the face a little behind happened for the nth time on the same day. 


Mom just waved her head stating, “ you should try some outdoor games maybe” and walked away muttering “ poor kid”. I was too young to understand why she thought all I had were books as company and that means loneliness to most.


Having finished ‘The Secret Garden’ by Enid Blyton and hoping to see the characters coming alive in my dreams as they always do, I stretched my little spine and stood up. I went beside the door of our living room to check whether dad’s walking towards home from a distance, after work. A glance at the clock said there is still a half an hour to go for his usual time of home coming. I stepped outside and sat on the little stone beside the narrow road, which is my usual point of waiting. Usha didi passed by, exchanging a smile. I opened my mouth to say hello, which got interrupted by her “lots of guests at home re… the dinner isn’t ready yet… waiting for dad? See you…” and off she went.
 These guests are such a nuisance… they come over and make your moms busy, dads too formal, and house a mess. They sleep on your bed, keep chatting away uptil wee hours… Thank God we don’t have guests in our house! 


“Dad will be little late today , he has a meeting” mom said from inside. “Go in then...” I said myself… he can’t be home for another 2 hours then – start off with ‘Around the world in 80 days’! Yay!  


What would it be like if I go around the world like Jules Verne? Introducing myself as different persons in different places – to local folks ofcourse… ‘Hey I’m Nancy and I’m a journalist… Hey I’m Rachel, I’m a photographer… Hey I’m somebody else and is another great-sounding professional… ‘ How will that sound? 


Aren’t people bored of being the same person all thought life? 


“ I’ll blow off that candle if I see you with a book sitting that close to it again.” 
Ahhh! Yeah, you guessed it right!


“Anjali has come to ask whether you can go playing with them… she is outside.”
 “Oh…” This wasn’t expected behavior… why me?
I looked behind and saw the frail looking smart girl coming in saying, “ we don’t have enough people for hide and seek… come play with us.” 


“Ughh… now?” 


Does it matter whether I want to go or not? Doesn’t look like… what matters is there aren’t enough people to play Hide and Seek. 


I got up and went after her, to make my sincere contribution to the troubled lot. All these places of hiding are known to all, what joy do they get out of playing here again?
Game progressed quite well, said the happy faces of all. “I’m gonna count… one, two three…” went on the next. All ran to different directions again. “I’m gonna find the best place to hide”. Anjali proclaimed and ran away. 


Well, I too will then… and I knew I would,  when I found my legs taking me towards my it. As I reahed there and took the Jules Verne story out again and immersed myself in it. The happiness of hiding in another era engulfed me...