The Serpent'sTea Cup

Late into the night, I received a call from a friend of mine to announce that a common friend of ours, had just had twins - a boy and a girl. They had baked a huge double-decker cake and had celebrated the event. 

As a friend of mine once asked, 'What is the big excitement in the birth of a child(?) When a virile man and a fertile woman join, conception and birth of a new life are bound to follow... what is the big excitement about it and the need to be congratulating(?!)'

Well, I did agree to him when he told me that. But, this celebration yesterday night was different. This friend of ours was with the merchant navy; newly married, he had to return to the sea to make money for the new expenses they were starting to have. He was in the waters when he heard about his wife being pregnant. The wife had told him that she could take care of the pregnancy as his mother was with her and there was nothing to worry and all he had to do was keep working and send home the money which she promised to save on land for him. The child was born; he couldn't come. His excitement of becoming a father was saved for only the sea to witness. Two years later when he returned, he met his little boy for the first time. He was so excited that he showered all that he earned on the mother and the child. He knew that there was a lifetime ahead and the sea could meet all their needs. After a short break, they knew that he had to return to keep the home running with promises to keep as a provider. This time, it was a five-year contract that he signed. That sacrifice would be worth enough to refurnish the house, spike the bank balance and provide the little luxuries for his loved ones - he thought. He went. 

Everything went smoothly as planned and he received regular photos of new things filling the house - a new car, a new couch, a new set of jewellery... everything that would make his return to land a joy once he landed - after all his life and savings were in his good wife's good hands. 

One day, when he was still in the sea, his mother sent him an SOS and wanted to talk to him. She soon came on a video call with him and showed him the house - it seemed reduced. There was almost nothing - save for the stool left for his mother to sit and weep on. The brilliant wife had skilfully taken off with their son and every bit of investment he had made monetarily. He felt more emotionally drained than financially. He returned.

The house was empty as his mother had shown. She was being taken care of by the neighbours till his return. There was nothing. Everything purchased that he got to see only on the photos were like they never were even there; the bank balance that he was told was his savings was all saved in the woman's name. The car she drove away in, the bags she packed everything into, the child she took away... everything that she said was 'theirs', were now 'her's' to keep. Every woman who does something as vulgar as this must have a family to back her up in such a deal; in this case, it was her father stood by this angel's side - who got a case filed at the police station to keep our man at a distance and a divorce filed at the family court soon after, to seal the deal. Benefit: A daughter to take care of him in his old age with a bag full of free goodies got out of her shrewd investments made with the sweat and blood of another soul. 

When I first met this man, he had just returned from a Tea Shop. It had become his usual routine to go sit there - not for the tea - but to see his son being taken to school on that route in a closed car - who he could see only from a distance. He looked shaken, stirred and sunk - like a ship being rattled in a storm - when he narrated these incidents with his chin on his chest. 

Soon, the nasty divorce battle began; the lawyers fought over the lies, the liars fought alongside the lawyers and finally the judge for whom these battles were not fought for a reason, declared peace and granted at the end the best thing the man had ever received - a divorce. The very same evening, he got married (again) to someone much younger, more beautiful and far more healthier and started a new life cleaning up his dirty slate. This incident made me chuckle at the seaman's unpredictability. Soon, we heard that his new wife had conceived and as things were expected to naturally turnout, delivered twins - doubling his happiness - that like most men, he deserved. 

While talking to him this time, he seemed so calm and collected. He was talking about how busy he is at times that he can't answer the phone like before - times when he would be doing the dishes or changing diapers for the new lives. Life had become calm after the storm and as a sailor knows best, no matter how far a man sails into the deep, he only moves closer to his heart on land.     

Children Around The World

These are children in Thailand I clicked during a trip there. This was supposed to be a community affected by the tsunami. "So what?!" they seem to ask as they dwell in their innocence. Wish someone would ask me to go around the world clicking children and I would at the drop of a hat. Anyways, while working with sexually-abused children in the Philippines, a country where abuse of such kind was rampant... thanks to lousy, busy parents whose money-making and other selfish priorities were so high that they often never realized the neglect their children were subjected to until too late, it was quite easy to identify a child who was possibly sexually abused by looking at them once (the tell-tale signs would all be there, written quite evidently that one can't miss them after working with them for quite some time). This easiness to profile was getting quite uneasy within soon when a crowd had one too many. More uneasy it was when I realized that though secretly rampant, how helpless some children were in India subjected to sexual abuse in the hands of people they trust the most, with nowhere to run nor hide and not very often, if at all they come out with the truth, subjected to ridicule and malicious treatment yet again that they neither deserve not desire. Thus the silence though yet it moves. Thats when you find comfort in watching wonderful parenting and safe, secure, confident and happy children.       

Kids Will Be Kids

Amongst the many things I enjoy, one thing ofcourse is to capture the twinkling eyes and eruptive smiles of children. The way they rush towards the lens (sometimes though scary) is often rewarding. Here is one such occasion when their smiles got frozen in time. Working with children I have often noticed adults who say that they cannot handle children or that they are not comfortable with children or any other excuse to keep themselves away from these mischievous tots;  when looked into their real issue, these are adults who would have had a turbulent childhood themselves, denied of love and care and neglected; the scar that itches every time they see childhood not actually the children. So next time you see an adult who can't "deal" with children, you know who needs an extra dose of love and care... right?!   

The Same Job Yet DIfferent

By the by, why does the child who dances on the streets for coins gets classified under 'child labour' and 'beggary' yet a child who dances in television and cinema screens for currency notes is not classified thus yet only gets glamourized more? And why does the team that makes these children perform on the streets get booked under the "prevention of child labour act" yet the people who employ these children in the entertainment business on screen get away? So does big bucks change the whole scenario here too???