The funniest news item this morning: a guy slapped Greg Chappel in Bhubaneshwar to express his anger over non-inclusion of Oriya players in the Indian Cricket team. I have my sympathies with poor Greg. I can understand how he must have felt. Long back when I was 3 years old, I went to Tirupati with my family. I was a litil-litil small-small nanna-munna golu-molu baccha walking with small-small steps, holding mummy's hand with my left hand and a balloon with my right hand. 5 of us - Mummy, Daddy, Sister, Brother and I were walking side by side, heading for the temple for God's Darshan. As we were walking, I saw a mad woman coming from the opposite direction. She was definitely walking on the wrong side of the road. She was heading towards us. None of the biggies in my gang seemed to notice her coming. She was talking something to herself. I strained my neck and tried to look upwards. I saw that Mummy-Daddy were busy arguing over something; Brother-Sister were busy fighting over something. I was too down-to-earth to matter much to anyone. My smallness irritated and frustrated me all the time. There was nobody else of my size.
I grew more and more scared as the mad woman was coming nearer. And then, something happened which shook me to my core. The mad woman slapped me hard. She kept on walking, never stopped one moment. She just slapped me and went away, talking shit to herself. The balloon in my right hand flew away into the air. Still no one else from my gang came to know. I had to do something. I cried so loudly that it hurt my throat. I had to do it. It was a golden chance to attract attention and lots of ollelles from all of them. All of them bent to look at me. Mom hugged me, and asked why I was crying. I told her about the mad woman, and that she had slapped me. I'm sure the biggies in my gang must have felt like laughing. I didn't care to look at their expressions. I guess, whatever happened - I didn't consider it funny at all at that time. I cried for long after that. It was easy to cry in those days. I was taken to some restaurant and was offered something I liked. I ate it, and stopped crying. My left cheek was red for a long time, with marks of the mad woman's fingers. And for a long time, I wondered why the woman slapped me. Then we went for Darshan. I don't remember what I asked the God for. Surely not a first rank coz I hadn't joined school by then. Nothing, I guess.
I grew more and more scared as the mad woman was coming nearer. And then, something happened which shook me to my core. The mad woman slapped me hard. She kept on walking, never stopped one moment. She just slapped me and went away, talking shit to herself. The balloon in my right hand flew away into the air. Still no one else from my gang came to know. I had to do something. I cried so loudly that it hurt my throat. I had to do it. It was a golden chance to attract attention and lots of ollelles from all of them. All of them bent to look at me. Mom hugged me, and asked why I was crying. I told her about the mad woman, and that she had slapped me. I'm sure the biggies in my gang must have felt like laughing. I didn't care to look at their expressions. I guess, whatever happened - I didn't consider it funny at all at that time. I cried for long after that. It was easy to cry in those days. I was taken to some restaurant and was offered something I liked. I ate it, and stopped crying. My left cheek was red for a long time, with marks of the mad woman's fingers. And for a long time, I wondered why the woman slapped me. Then we went for Darshan. I don't remember what I asked the God for. Surely not a first rank coz I hadn't joined school by then. Nothing, I guess.
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