"...aye hero...kya hua?..."

"...aye hero...kya hua?..."

...the watchman can be heard saying, at least once a day, twice at times. ["Hey hero, what's the matter?"]

There is this cute little fellow who lives in one of the ground floor apartments. About 2.5 - 3 years old. The age-old saying "it takes a village to raise a child" seems pretty apt for this champ. He is usually seen playing in the building compound for most part of the day. More often than not, he is seen sitting in the watchman's seat. At other times, he is seen playing inside another ground floor apartment where a nice old lady always welcomes him and occasionally treats him with food too.

However, nearly daily, we hear a shriek followed by the sounds of crying. Shortly thereafter, the two little bare feet come running out of the house and pause at the place where both the watchman and the old lady could spot him. Nearly each time, one or both of them call him out lovingly, asking why he is crying. Sometimes he tells them about his plight and at other times he just goes to them and starts playing. Over a period of time, this has become a routine. Whenever he is upset, he comes out running, there is a "aye hero...kya hua?" moment and after a while, he calms down.

One Sunday morning, we heard the same shriek followed by the watchman's usual line. However, before the little one could reach the watchman, his mom came out shouting "No one needs to talk to him. He is refusing to take his bath!" The mom was aware of the kid's antics. She knew he would go and find solace in the watchman/old lady's affection and wanted to clearly make that option unavailable to get the kid to comply.

The watchman just looked at the kid with a sad face, knowing he could not disregard what the mom had just said. The little one kept wailing, looking at the watchman and the old lady's house door. All that the watchman said once in a feeble voice was "Go and take your bath, then we will play", but that was met with a louder cry. Eventually, in a couple of mins, the kid slowly walked back home, knowing he had no takers today. He was back out for play in about 30mins, washed up and fresh.

- Irrespective of age, we all have people/things to go to when we get upset. Yet, at times the option becomes unavailable. 

- Sometimes, they rightly push us back to reevaluate the cause of hurt. However, we end up getting more upset ( at them for questioning our state, even though we know that they could be right ).

- Finally, more often than not, we end up regretting (and if possible, correcting) our behaviour after experiencing such rejections/realizations. 

In the end, all is well till we come out clean and fresh after such episodes. Aakhir hum sab bhi hero hai.