FranKophone

Dear Baba, I am sorry. For being a brute. For not understanding your state of mind. For threatening you. For everything that I have done.  Now I understand you weren't wrong to see her. You weren't wrong when you got over Maa. You weren't the worst father ever. You were the best.  I have wronged you as well as her. I was so cruel, insensitive and stubborn.  I have a long road to redemption. Hope you might forgive me. Someday. I am sorry again. Yours , Emmy. 

Dear Mamma, Where did you go ? Papa says you went to fairyland to bring me those white wings. Did you get them ? Are they too hard to find ? Can't you come soon ? I miss you. Papa too misses you. He tells me stories of lions and flowers. He says you will be back when I finish my cup of milk. I drink it and then wait for you. But you do not come back. I  cry. Sometimes Papa cries too. He hides his tears. He misses you too. Come back Mamma....I don't need those white wings....I need you to be here. Papa wants you. Your loving daughter, Emmy.

December 1991. A small township in India . A new departmental store had just opened. A little girl of about three years. Very mischievious. Pushes the stack of buckets and they tumble. Reason : She needs the biggest toy available in the store. She can’t find one, much to her disappointment. Her mother, naturally embarrassed, puts forth a condition. “You have to write A to Z as well as 1 to 10. Only then you’ll get this gun ”,she said, pointing towards a two-feet long, sturdy, toy-gun. Her eyes gleam,then shimmer and then she rushes home immediately. A quick glance at all the letters of the alphabet and then she sits down with a pencil. It was the first time she wrote all those twenty-six letters together. The girl’s father came home. She proudly displayed “the fruit of her labour”. No mistakes. Smiles followed. The next morning she finds the gun on her bed. Squeals with delight. Bliss. Today that little girl is in search of another gun.