He was 7 - maybe 8.
They were a group of muscly men. All clad in identical t-shirts. "There is nothing wrong with him" - they said "only a small cut."
Sheba looked at the child lying on the bed. He was dazed. The boy had been climbing up one of the human pyramids that characterise the festival celebrating the birth of Krishna.
The pyramid had collapsed. He was crushed in the melee.
Our staff were passing the spot and said that the men had not paid attention to the boy. The music had started again and the men began dancing with abandon. Unsurprisingly, the men who came in reeked with alcohol.
The staff had brought the boy in. Sheba checked his hands and torso for injuries. There did not seem to be any. "Does it hurt here?" she asked, softly pressing different parts of the boys body. "No" came the soft reply. The eyes looked vacant.
The boy seemed to have escaped serious trauma to his body. There was a small cut on his foot which was dressed by our nurse.
There was not much else to do but release the boy.
He was swallowed up into the afternoon.
-------------------------
Later that night I had to do some shopping. The cross roads near our house was a mass of humanity. Truck loads of teams coming and going - aiming to build the pyramid and smash the pot of dahi - and collect a large cash prize in the process. Hundreds of people looked on eagerly at the spectacle as a massive sound system growled out hybrid twitchy beats.
All around were immense hoardings - of the local political party that was organsing the show in this pocket. Advertisements of the local sweet shop and other local businesses also featured prominently - with more surface area devoted to them than to the diety for whom the festival is held. The other money - money that had been extracted out of countless local folks - big and small - by the 'volunteers' did not get mention - other than the obvious costs incurred in putting the spectacle together. As before - electricity comes free from the power grid - its the local godfather who is organising the spectacle after all.
As I passed a token policeman did some traffic directing - a truckload of pyramid climbers was just pushing off - while others were coming in. Buses and cars which had been waiting to pass inched by.
I was struck by the masses of young men - wearing T-shirts with a prominent regional politician on the front - and a local politico on the back - driving scores of motor cycles festooned with their party flags.
There is so much energy and potential in these young men. But 2 days after the spectacle is over - the pot-holed roads and gloomy monsoonal skies have hardly a memory of them.
Would that we could see each young man doing daring things that have long-lasting fruit. The bread and circuses that our local parties vie in out-doing each other in (which are far less bread and far more circus of course) are not in any way building our country.
As for the boy. May he fare well. Will he grow up to be one of the reeking men who 'accompanied' him to our clinic. Remember that each one of them used to be a small boy of 7 or 8 years of age.
All around were immense hoardings - of the local political party that was organsing the show in this pocket. Advertisements of the local sweet shop and other local businesses also featured prominently - with more surface area devoted to them than to the diety for whom the festival is held. The other money - money that had been extracted out of countless local folks - big and small - by the 'volunteers' did not get mention - other than the obvious costs incurred in putting the spectacle together. As before - electricity comes free from the power grid - its the local godfather who is organising the spectacle after all.
As I passed a token policeman did some traffic directing - a truckload of pyramid climbers was just pushing off - while others were coming in. Buses and cars which had been waiting to pass inched by.
I was struck by the masses of young men - wearing T-shirts with a prominent regional politician on the front - and a local politico on the back - driving scores of motor cycles festooned with their party flags.There is so much energy and potential in these young men. But 2 days after the spectacle is over - the pot-holed roads and gloomy monsoonal skies have hardly a memory of them.
Would that we could see each young man doing daring things that have long-lasting fruit. The bread and circuses that our local parties vie in out-doing each other in (which are far less bread and far more circus of course) are not in any way building our country.
As for the boy. May he fare well. Will he grow up to be one of the reeking men who 'accompanied' him to our clinic. Remember that each one of them used to be a small boy of 7 or 8 years of age.
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