Her name was Ramona. She was my adopted kid... for two days. Its part of this wonderful programme organised by the Social Service League of St. Xaviers college wherein you can adopt a child from a lower income group for two days.
The one thing that stood out about this child was that she was beautiful. She had light eyes, brown hair and an amazing smile. She seemed quiet while standing in the line waiting for one of the volunteers to pick her. I walked up to her and asked her if she'd like to spend two days with me. She smiled a very shy smile and said yes!
The games and other interactive assignments started. Ramona didn't want to play, didn't want to dance and didn't want to do anything in particular. I started getting annoyed. I'm not much of the patient types and this was definitely testing it. I couldn't find a single thing for us to do that seemed to interest her. We went to the Byculla zoo the next day. All the kids were excited. I figured.. OOoooh fun! This she should enjoy.
Thats when it happened. We were standing at the entrance of the zoo. All the kids were dancing on the balls of their feet. Jumpin up and down, giddy with excitement. I could feel that familiar excitement too. A zoo after ages. This should be fun. Itll be better than yesterday. Ramona would definitely love today. And thats when she said it - 'My uncle works here. I come here every weekend. This is so boring.'
I wanted to scream!!!!!! S C R E A M. I thought I was doing something nice here. I adopted a monster. She was bored, lacked interest in everything and frankly beginning to annoy me tremendously. I thought to myself... Damn! I should've picked someone else.
As the day wore on, she almost began to cry coz she wanted to leave. Then I did something I regret to this day and wish I'd never said. I got mad at her and told her what an annoying child she was. How extremely boring it was for me to be with her but I still carried on and hence she should be a little more sporty.
Her face visibly fell. Good! I thought to myself. This should teach her to stop being so selfish! She just got quiet after that. Didn't say much. I let it be at that. She fell asleep on me on the drive back. I woke her up when we got back to college. She'd be leaving for her own home in an hour. I thought to myself - its the last hour. Thank God!
There were some more interactive sessions. After which all the kids and volunteers were given goody boxes. It contained some wafers and scones and chocolates and the most delicious chocolate cake from Taj. I knew what was coming before the boxes were being distributed. So i asked her - 'Ramona, do u like cake??' Her eyes lit up for the first time in two days. ' I love cake', she said. 'its my favorite! Especially chocolate flovour.'
I smiled as our boxes came to us and told her. Ill tell u a secret - 'I love chocolate cake too. When I was small, my grandpa used to get cake for me and I would hide and eat it, so my mom wouldn't scold me.' She giggled at that as she opened the box... and then i saw her beautiful eyes light up for the second time that day. She touched the cake almost reverently. She moved it to the side and ate all the wafers first, and then the scones and other things in the box. I had already finished my entire box by then. I smiled down at her as I saw she left the cake for last. I asked her ' best for last huh?'.
She looked up at me... held my eyes for a while, then looked down at her box. She broke the cake piece into half. She gave me one half and said - 'You like this cake, don't u? Here take half!' I stared at her in stunned surprise. I had already wolfed down my cake, barely giving a thought to whether she'd want some of it or no. She was holding my half in her hand and then she closed the box. I asked her - 'Aren't you going to eat the other half?'. She said 'Oh no, Thats for my brother. He loves cake too. But he won't get a chance like me to taste it.'
I just stared at her. Here was a child who could barely afford such luxuries. She was only 8. And here she was sharing the only thing she loved in the entire two days with someone who could buy such cakes at any time and another who didn't even know that a cake was being offered. I was touched. I felt ashamed of myself. I had never come across someone so generous or loving before. I thought of the two days I spent wishing it would be over and then repented. Here I was with such a wonderful human being and I wasted a chance to get to know her better.
She taught me something that a hundred stories wouldn't teach. She taught me to slow down and not judge. She taught me what loving someone means. She taught me what generosity is. I never saw Ramona again. Its been 7 years, but to this day, she flashes across my mind sometimes and I smile....
I went there to make a child happier and came back learning the true secret to happiness!
