THE VILLAGE BY THE SEA

To me he seemed to be a very innocent and nice boy. He asked me where the post office was and he posted a postcard to his family in his village. He was very hard working and he never spent his money by seeing movies. He was a simple boy.

One evening when I was working till late, Hari suddenly came out of the eating house. I asked him weather he was unwell but then I realized that he must be missing the cool night breeze of his village inside the hot and stuffy eating house. I told him to go to the park which was around the corner and sleep. He later had told me that it was much cooler in the park and had thanked me for my advice.

Before the rainy season had begun, one hot afternoon I remember that Hari, unlike the other boys working in the eating house, was not sleeping but was blankly starring at the traffic. He was lonely. I called him into my tiny shop. I was just about to mend a grand father clock and I asked him to help me. He willingly accepted my offer. Since that day, every afternoon Hari helps me mend clocks and I in turn give him lessons in watch mending. I can say that Hari is a quick learner and indeed very helpful. He wanted to learn how to mend clocks and I like that quality of his. He used to get fascinated by the different clocks I had in my shop.

In the first week of June, I had taken Hari to the Worli sea face. I had bought him a coconut. I thought this would make him feel that he was close to his village. When we were leaving, Hari thanked me. I felt nice and thought that I was successful in making him feel close to home.

When the rainy season began, Hari along with some other small boys used to help people take their cars out of the clogged water to earn some extra money.

I had fallen ill during the monsoon. Hari had come over to my house when he had overheard Jagu give one of my customers my house address. It felt really nice to know that he cared for me. He told me that he wanted to go back to his village. I told him that he could go back when the monsoons were over but he wanted to go before that. I tried pacifying him by telling him that he could earn some more money if he would stay till the monsoons were over. He told me about a few fishing boats from his village getting lost in the sea. He told me about his sorrows in the village and about a factory coming up there in which all the farmland would get used. By being optimistic I explained to him that with the factory coming up in his village he could work there or work as a builder to build roads or as a vegetable vendor. I told him that he could open a watch mending shop in his village- the first one, as many people who would come to work in the factories would have watches.

This made him eager to learn some more watch mending.

I had told him about Coconut Day. He found it very strange that I being a Parsee also celebrated Hindu and Muslim festivals.

On coconut day I took Hari to Chowpatty so that he could experience the festival. It was extremely crowded, with hawkers selling balloons, ice creams, coloured drinks, whistles and of course green coconuts. I bought him a coconut and told him to keep his money to buy presents for his family. That day Hari fiercely fought with the Bombay boys for his coconut as they had taken it from him. He was victorious and I realized that Hari had changed from a typical village boy into a city boy- ready to face life. When I told him that, he felt ashamed and gave the coconut to a beggar.

The day Hari was leaving Bombay, I bought him his bus ticket and gave him 10 rupees that he had earned by helping me mend clocks. He had bought lovely gifts to take back home. I bid him good bye at my shop but did not go to see him off.

I will always remember Hari- the innocent and hard working boy I had met from Thul.