postcard from j: small wonder!
I watched her as she squeezed herself between two strangers, one being me. We were sitting on the 3-seater of the bus' top deck. My tired eyes barely noticed her face when suddenly, I realized the burkha-clad woman had a child in her arms. He was tiny, frail and very very fragile. I love children. Love to hold them, to play with them, to entertain them and be entertained myself... But this child somehow held my attention in a different sort of way. I was almost afraid to even touch his chin. A conversation with the mother followed. I asked her how old he was and she held up her hand and indicated 5 months old "lekin bahut bimaar rahta hai" . That got me curious, so I probed a bit. They live in Govandi , a suburb in central Mumbai, close to Chembur. It turned out that the little fellow was physically weak since birth. "Woh tho royaa bhi nahin..." , she said with a sad face. The children’s hospital was unable to make him well and many people had asked her husban...