The World where I Grew Up

That Particular Family

Date: Someday in the September of 2020

Many years ago, there was this slum dwelling on my way to college, where a particular family lived. Judging by their appearance, I guessed that the father was a rickshaw puller while the mother was a maid. They had a six-seven-year-old son who, I believe, went to the local government school.

Although there were a lot of families living in the slum, for some reason that particular family caught my eye and I would look forward to observing them on my way to college every day. Depending on my class schedules, I would get to see snippets of their everyday lives at different times of the day.

Let me first describe the surroundings in which they lived before I mention why they caught my eye. Like any slum in tropical countries, this slum too was a dingy, smelly locality with run-down huts and thatches as peoples' homes. This particular family's home was also a run-down hut that threatened to topple over if the wind speed would rise over 80mph.

However, the depressing environment did not stop the family from decorating their humble abode. They had small potted flowers around their house, had a small boundary of shaved bamboo sticks to demarcate their property and there was a small curtain on the doorway that provided modesty to the place. I mention these details because none of their neighbors had any of these items in or around their houses. Probably that is why the house caught my attention as it literally looked like a water-lily growing in mud.

Sometimes, when I had morning lessons, I would see the mother seeing off her husband for his daily job and her child to his school. If I had classes maybe an hour later, I would see her locking the house to go to her job. Sometimes, especially during winter, I would see the father and son sharing a meal on the porch under the sun.

For some reason, I could draw a parallel between them and most of the middle-class to upper-middle-class families in the urban areas. Both classes wake up in the morning, go to their respective workplaces, and come back tired late at night. However, for some reason, that family looked happier and more satisfied with life than most middle-class to upper-middle-class families would be.

After I finished college and left town, I never got to see them again. When I went back a few years later, the slum had already been demolished and replaced by a marketing complex. I wonder where they went. I hope wherever they settled next, they are doing great. I will still cheer for them. 

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My first story online. 

I apologize for any grammatical errors. 

These are one-shots, and may not update very frequently.