HERO
was already late to school, and I could
I hear
my auto rickshaw honking. But
my eyes were looking at the doorstep,
waiting for my hero. And as usual, mom
was chanting her prayers. Being the first
day of the academic year, I had
forgotten my pencil. Suddenly there
was that voice calling, “Anu, come
out!”. And I ran through the door, got
the baton from my hero, crossed the
finish line, and sat in the auto rickshaw.
You know, first day of school is like
having relatives at your house; you
could neither smile nor cry. And the
same old questions of what my name
was and what my dad was.
So yeah, I'm Anu, and my hero is a
quality control worker; around 1000
people depend on his work. A single
day of his absence would create chaos in
the streets. Such was the importance of
his work. Moreover, he wore just
boxers to his workplace. But he was
disciplined person, and bathed at least 4
times a day and as soon as he came back
from work. He even had a nickname:
“The Underground Don”.
He worked for only three hours a day,
but his life was on the line all that
time. After quality control was over for
that particular project, my hero used to
come out from his workplace like a
Black Panther.
Although
his
workplace
was
absolute crap, he didn’t give a damn
about it. As soon as I reached home
everyday, he used to take me to a
handmade merry go round, where I
used to feel the Earth revolving,quite
literally. But on that particular day,
he was taking an ice bath in an ice box,
in the center of the hall at that. I asked
my mom, to which she replied that
he’d inhaled the wrong gas. And I still
remember the face of my hero,
sorry, my Unsung Hero.
As I came home one day, I asked
my mom what the machine outside
was. “Your Hero would have been
alive if only they’d used that
machine two years back!”, she replied
with anger in her voice and water in
her eyes.
MURALI KRISHNA
48