Friday, May 18, 2007

The sleep of innocence

This happened almost a life time back. I was back in India, Delhi to be precise and was enrolled in a bachelor's degree program and commuted back and forth between west Delhi and Cannought Place. ( I still can't bring myself to call it Rajiv Chauk)

I was on my way home and had my bag with a gazillion texts inside it sitting on my lap, when a young couple got in with a toddler and infant and the assorted baby paraphernalia. To say that they had their hands full would be an understatement. While the husband sat in another seat, with all the gazillion bags, the wife sat down beside me with the infant in her lap. The toddler stood between her and me.

To this day , I don't know what I was thinking , but I plonked my bag down on the floor and asked a very willing toddler to hop on . Before you could say lap, he was sitting in it. What he did next is something I remember even now. He put his tiny hands against me, snuggled and promptly went to sleep. While I felt envious of his innocent sleep, I could not help feeling a sense of warmth because of the implicit trust this little thing seemed to have put in me. ( Cynical me thinks that trust has nothing to do with it-but with my own sleep problems, I think trust is a big part of it.)

I don't remember if I got off the bus first or if they did. What I do remember is the feel of that child snuggled against me and the slow rhythm of its breathing.

Life is wonderful with its little moments that stow away in our minds, to be relived and reminisced later.

12 comments:

Captain Nemo said...

Heartwarming little anecdote...
it's definitely got something to do with trust... like, the kid wouldn't even have come to you if he did not trust you...

Apy said...

:) . that was cute..

hehe.. may be it was like .. whoa.. a place to sleep... n that too with invitation.. someone has to be crazy to say no to it..
why dont gals invite me like that... to sleep on their lap like they used to once upon a time.. i wonder... :(

bilbo said...

Apy dude, those babes that invited you to sleep in their labs are probably bebes now. Would you accept their invite now ? me wondering

bilbo said...

oops , that was laps and not labs

Apy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Apy said...

well.. lets move on.. i m talkin about current market babes..
life is so unfair.. sigh!!

Rajavel said...

Beautiful Billy ! A point in timeline ! worth remembering ! The kind of elation one feels when a little one trusts you intinctively is a exhilarating ! And make no mistakes - they judge you !

Anonymous said...

sweet!

Blue Athena said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Blue Athena said...

That was a such a sweet moment of time stored away...

Nicely described. :)

Shankar said...

Something like that happened to me not long ago :)

a little boy came up to me in the cinemas, while watching a hindi movie, as when one of the songs started, held my hand, trying to drag me out unto the corridor to dance. I was touched :)

the girls behind me gave an audible 'aawww'

PS: people would agree if I said: you don't write frequent enough :)

asuph said...

You've been
tagged

cheers,
asuph