The writeup is a response to a writing prompt I read somewhere. The prompt is like this :
You open the mail and receive a letter from one of your favorite childhood toys, explaining what the toy has been up to all these years since you have moved on. Some of it comes as a shock to you. What’s even more shocking is the reason the toy is contacting you.
A Letter From Your Favorite Childhood Toy
I generally wake up early. Early is 5. And my day always starts with a coffee. So on that usual day, with my hot coffee in my hand I was browsing my mails. I archived the important ones, deleted the spams, shifted few to personal folder. And there was one more unread mail.What caught my special attention was that the email had no sender name.'Surprising' I thought, and clicked it to read on. The first two lines took me by a great surprise and did not make any sense.
" Hi you must have forgotten me by now. I am your doll in a red frock, that your mom got me to you as a gift in your 1st grade" " The mail might surprise you but I urge you to read it further."
Thoroughly curious, with no delay I read on " So do you remember me? Remember the game of King and Queen? And remember my surprise birthday party?
I had to stop and think. Who was this? My doll? Or was it some prank by my brother? Or some weird game like Jumanji? All these questions and their answers seemed unreasonable. I began to read the lines again " Red Frock..Mom's gift...King and Queen..1st grade" Oh ya this is my doll..!! My doll Thi.....! "But wait a minute. This must be crazy" I thought. " My doll, which I had about 20 years ago, is writing me an email?" More curious , I went back to read the pending lines.
" I was a dear and a good friend of yours. I remember how you loved to plait my hair and dress me up. Of course I remember your brother and his pranks. I remember the window where I always stood until you came back from school. I remember the beautiful garden and our place beneath the Gulmohar tree. Well, it was a good life with only good things around.
I would not blame you for forgetting to take me along with you. The day you were leaving (the town)it was my mistake to fall off beneath the bed and your maid's mistake to take me rather steal me away"
My head seemed to reel. The story I was reading was true word to word, but the fact (call it anything) that my doll after all these years coming back and narrating to me this story was weird..! How ever I decided against drawing any conclusions and continued to read..
"Your maid that evening took me to her little abode. Her kids were so excited, they grabbed me and ran into the back yard. I played different games with them - soiling myself in the back yard, getting drenched under the tap water. It was fun :) After a couple of months, one day a huge storm hit the slum town. Hundreds of people vacated their houses. The maid's family was one of the few to vacate the town that night with their things, but unfortunately they forgot to take me. That whole night i lay in the hut, but before dawn break, gale of winds and floods hit the place again. This time I was swept way.Floating amidst the dirty waters I traveled a few miles, before making my place on a debris. I waited there the whole night before being picked up by the municipality truck. In one of the municipality garbage rooms, when the workers were segregating things, I came up and must have looked better to their eyes despite my broken leg, torn clothes and disheveled hair, that one of the guys handed me over to a shop guy (whom one of them had known) instead of throwing me in the recycle bin.
I found myself being engrossed in the story'Quite an adventure you have had my doll' I thought and continued to read..
"The shop guy was my new life giver. He fixed my broken leg, made new golden hair, gave a dress and shelved me in his shop. So that became my new place. It was interesting to observe the customers, their bargains, their happy and disappointed faces. After almost a month of my stay there, one day a young girl pointed me to her mom. So in minutes the hands exchanged me. The new girl whom I call " little one who never spoke" was very good to me. I had a royal treatment. I lay on a satin bed beside her. I got new dresses, hair clips, and shoes almost every day. Surprisingly she did everything like playing, dressing, feeding..everything except talking to me :) My stay with her rather ended unexpectedly when they took me to a pilgrimage along with them. While traveling in a boat I slipped off the little ones hand and fell into the river. Before the girl to yell to rescue me, gusts of winds suddenly passed by and I was swept away in the water within seconds. Surprising some may call it, but destiny is what I call."
'Then what happened? Did you land up in some river bed? ' I anxiously thought to myself. Just then 'A' entered the room, and asked ' what are you up to, this early morning?' 'Nothing 'A' just reading about my doll' I said paying half attention. 'Your doll'??
I was in no mood to explain him the half story I had read, so I said ' Is it OK if we can talk later about this?' (He understood the meaning hidden in the question and left me..)
"I was in the waters for two days and nights before the Ganges carefully brought me to the foot steps of 'Varanasi'.Surprising that no one noticed me. When the day dawned, a swami (pious man with spiritual powers) came by to the river for morning prayers. His eyes fell on me instantly and he almost grabbed me with eagerness. 'Of what use might I be to him' I thought. The swami hurried back to his abode, called for his disciples and hastily whispered something to them. At his behest they changed my garb, tied some sacred threads round my neck and lay me down in the center of lit candles. I lay there for hours. It must be sometime in the midnight that the disciples and the pious man came in, encircled me and sat with closed eyes. They must have sat there for a long time, because before the dawn struck, I slipped the time and fell asleep.
I knew what happened the moment I regained my consciousness. Something about me was different. I could sense the man's hand on my skin. The Pious man held me and said ' There you are'! And yes there I was dumb struck..I could understand his language. Doll's have no feelings, but I could sense something like fear, confusion in my heart.
"Yes you can now sense" he said and smiled "Oh God ..! he is a mind reader..! And am thinking! But Doll's do not think!" "You can not only think but also talk my dear" he said " "I can what??" surprised my hand involuntarily raised to my lips. "Ooh God..!I can move my hand too..!" Something has terribly gone wrong , I desperately thought. The pious mind reader, with an air of pride said "Haha.Nothing much happened.You are just a doll to whom I have given a life. Now you are my wondrous creation who will bring me name and fame."
I understood the meaning of his words only as time passed. I gradually grasped his intentions and realized what he had meant by getting name and fame. I was his money maker. They had taught me some sentences and words, which I was supposed to tell out in sequence to each devotee who came near me and asked his/her question. Words like 'Yes, No , Time will tell, Have faith, Donation, Swami's grace' were taught. When ever I uttered the words as an answer either the devotee would turn euphoric(this, if the answer suited him) or look perplexedly at the swami (this,when they could not link my answer to their question) . That is when the swami or the disciples intervened and took the lead.
I smiled reading this. What a smart swami he should have been. Made fools of people.
" The initial days were very good. I loved the attention and the treatment. I sometimes used to laugh within at the way how the richest men too turned out to be simpletons. My one blink or one smile would bring them down to tears.
Years went by and the saint became quite popular. Along with popularity his greed for money and power grew too. He began using me and peoples' innocence.Others' weakness became his asset, he loved people's troubles, because every grave trouble had a high price tag to it. As time passed, I began to see all this. I could no longer laugh over people's tears. My false answers were giving them a false hope and this i could no longer bare. So I slowly began to protest. I tried to explain him about the things I felt towards people. But instead of paying heed to my words he in turn hurt and tortured me with his words and acts.
But you know, I never deterred. On one such evenings, I questioned him " Why only me? why was it not any other doll from the shop?" To this he smiled and said " That is because you do not have a name" Not quite understanding, when I asked him again, he explained " Any living or non living thing that is stole away from some one or that has a specific name,is not eligible for this practice. And as you have no name and neither we know who you belong to, you are well worth of this practice" he laughed. I then understood why he was so happy to see me in the river that day.
I knew I had a name, but how could i remember it? It was 20 years ago that you had named me and none of my care takers after you ever addressed me with any name. It is destiny's will that I saw your advertisement in a paper( I was wrapped in it when i was being taken to some one's house). And so here I am, after using all my occult powers, able to contact you.
The swami had said "The person who owns you has to repeat your name three times, show me a proof that he owns you, only then will you be released from this bondage and become a normal doll again"
My dear please help me out. Please. Am tired of this 'life'. I was better living like a doll with no feelings and pleasures. These pleasures I have realized lead me to sadness as much as they bring happiness. In earnest, I pray release me from this bondage
I know this does not make any sense -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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My Address :
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My mind was blank. I closed my eyes for a while. This had to be crazy and I had to be crazy if I believe this. No one is going any where.Trying to take off the thought..I slowly dozed off.
SCENE CHANGE
I was on the streets of the town, engrossed in finding the address. A man who looked familiar about the place directed me to the address. With in minutes I was in the Ashram (Abode of the pious saints and swamis). My heart was thumping hard, as I sat in the hall waiting for the swami to come. Many unsettling thoughts with which I had come all this long,kept barging in "Is this for real? Am i making a fool of myself? What if this is true..and what if he is not ready to give my doll?"
I had thought of a plan. So when the swami came in..I bowed down to his feet. In a dramatic voice i said " swami I have a problem, I heard you have a doll..which will help me........................................................................................
.........................."
After listening to my fake story, he slowly nodded his head and with a smile signaled the disciple to get the doll. As I waited for it, my heart was filled with some unknown excitement. Look at me, I am here, traveling some thousand miles, as a response to an email from my doll. I smiled within. I remembered how much I had cried for forgetting my doll. I had got many new ones, but this one always was my first. More surprising was the fact that this was the only doll to which I gave a name. None of my others had one. Coincidental that destiny involved me in such a crazy story.
I know it was too filmy, but my eyes went watery the moment I saw my doll. She was just the same. Her golden hair, blue eyes, black shoes. Memories of my childhood flashed back...my mother and I deciding her name, the place where she stood, the picture we all took together.
The rest of the events you can guess! I yelled out my doll's name thrice..."Oh it is my 'Thithali' (Butterfly)! Made some drama, showed the pics and literally grabbed my doll from the swami's hand and walked away smiling. I think it was just a fraction of a second that I and Thithali looked and recognized each other. When I uttered out her name, as told by the swami, she lost all powers and became a normal doll again. But that one glance I had of her..I saw how grateful and happy she was to see me.
As i walked back to the bus stand, I was thinking of calling my mom...and then 'A'. I was brimming with eagerness to tell them all the story.
In the city bus, my curious co-passenger commented "That is a pretty doll. For your daughter?"
I said 'No..for me'
Quite surprised now she asked "You play with doll now???"
"OK Nan, tell her the whole story" I thought, and said " Well actually yes and no. This is a 20 year old doll with which I had played when I was young. It was with this swami here all this while, so I came back to take it. Now I have it, I think I might want to play again" I smiled.
I am sure the lady could not comprehend what I said, but luckily the railway station stop arrived and I did not have to answer her further questions. I smiling said "If you excuse me. My stop." I got up, made my way through and happily walked away :)
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