Yeah, I was a kid then, guess a 3rd grader. Wow that's almost 11 years back, no wonder it's all so fuzzy. Though I still remember that Ultimate Misadventure. So it all started when we went to see The Tajmahal, it was quite a family reunion. My family, that is me, my sister and my parents as well as my maternal uncle's family, we all went together to Agra. We took an auto from the Agra railway station to the all so predictable destination, The Taj Mahal, the symbol of love. I and my cousin Ambuj were gelling quite well, I was his idol, the big bro, his superman or rather shaktimaan(our own indigenious superhero).
Ambuj's three years younger than me, not to mention 3 inches taller too, he's a strapping teenager now. He was all but a five year old kiddo at that time, still we share a piece of history, which I doubt any of us will ever forget. Okay now no bugging, cut to 2000 A.D, we reached the main entrance of The Taj, a huge brown door, I don't remember if we took tickets or not, hell i was a kid, how was i supposed to bother about such things. So hand in hand with my cousin, under the watchful gaze of our parents we walked into the perimeter of the world's most beautiful monument ever built. But what i saw looked like a greyscale of the Taj, even kids can differentiate between sandstone and marble. My father saw my confusion, and then he clarified, "Son what you see isn't the Taj, it's just a replica made in sandstone",I just sighed in relief. I don't exactly remember but i guess we passed three such replicas before we got to the real thing and believe me, it was better than anything i could have imagined. All shimmering and white, the Taj glowed like a tulip in the sunshine. Nah am not so good at metaphors :P. Anyways, like i was saying, i was all mystified with the Taj, we had a photo session before the fountains, then we proceeded towards the main courtyard. We had to give up our slippers at the shoe counter and so we walked barefoot into the Mahal. I guess we were accompanied with some guide, who showed us around I amd Ambuj tried skating on our socks at the marble floor. Too bad for kiddo, he tripped bad, started wailing, typical of kids.
We then descended down the stairs towards the tomb of Queen Mumtaz, I don’t remember the details though I was very happy to come back up, tombs never really fascinated me. Back in the courtyard, we went sat near one of the minarets, I my dad and Ambuj , that is. Suddenly our folks started moving, I also got up and then I saw that Ambuj was still squatting, oblivious. I went upto him, took his hand and then we walked towards my mumma, she was wearing a blue saree today, I always loved that colour on her. Mumma was walking down the stairs towards the shoe counters , soon she came out , wore her sandals and trodded on. We were still to catch up. We ran like hell but soon we got tired and besides the fact that we weren’t wearing any footwear did also count. Mumma walked on towards the exit, never looking back, we tried to catch up and we did just at the exit point only to see some stranger wrapped in that lovely blue saree, we kids were confused, where did our parents go? Did the leave us and went back to New Delhi?
We were perplexed and flustered, we looked around only to see a vast array of unfamiliar faces. Only minutes ago, I was sitting in my dad’s lap answering GK questions, yeah that was my idea of fun, not that I was geeky, I was just bright!! And now, I was separated from my loved ones. Picture it people, two kids, one eight other five, stranded in The Taj Mahal, a place with thousands of visitors each day, looking around for their parents. A sudden impulse made me rush back to the exit, I saw the first auto and ask the driver innocently “Uncle, will you take us to Delhi?”, then a sudden glint of light caught my eye, I saw a knife under his shirt, I dunno if it was just a paper knife or a dagger but we sure ran for our lives, reaching the main crossing, the guy called behind us but to no avail. I still think it was good that we didn’t talk to that driver, for all we knew he could have been an immoral person, sane people don’t carry daggers under their hoods. Soon enough we went to this other amiable looking autorickshaw driver, asked him the same innocent question, to which he asked , where are our parents, Ambuj said mummy papa left us and went to Delhi. The driver sensed that we were lost, he asked us to get into his auto, it was a small sized petrol run auto with yellow paint, tarmac covering its roof, all the way we never sat down, we were reveling sitting in the backseat, “Yeah, we’re gonna meet our parents!!”.
It was a short drive, in another five minutes we reached our destination which in no way looked like our neighbourhood in Delhi, I was getting apprehensive, Ambuj was oblivious and all playful, I guess he really thought that I was shaktimaan and no harm could come onto him as long as he was with me. I just hoped I would live up to his expectations. The engine died and the driver got out of the auto, he instructed us to be seated until he came back and we did. He came back with a constable in khaki and they took us inside. The only thing conspicuous about the constable was his pot belly and maybe his overstrained belt
We sat on the rickety sofa chairs in the police station, soon enough Ambuj got restless and started toying with paper weights, the inspector came to us and took our names, noted our dress colours and asked us when and where we saw our parents last. But I guess even then we needed some perks to speak up :P, he got us chocolates and biscuits , even some soft drink that tasted like rasna. As soon as our stomachs stopped gurgling our tongues got in action. We narrated the whole incident to the inspector and then played hide and seek with the constables.
Now how many of you have been to a police station? Not many I guess, even if u have been, am sure you weren’t offered choco biscuits and soft drinks let alone play hide and seek with the corporals. :P :P
I won’t call it an ordeal, rather a misadventure for us dragon hearts, though considering our families’ point of view, it was the worst ordeal ever.
My dad heard the police’s announcements at the Taj, about two lost kids and needless to say he rushed to the police station and as soon as he saw us he took us in his arms. His happiness was overwhelming, he was ecstatic. At that time I didn’t understand but now I do know how relieved he would have been to say together, back in one piece all alive and kicking. Papa took us back to the Taj, where our mummies were crying their eyes off and jumped up when they saw us and took us in their arms, gosh these many kisses in one day, I guess that’s the reason I rarely get kisses nowadays, it’s like I exhausted my lifelong quota of kisses in one minute.
Sure enough our reunion was emotional and ecstatic. I was so happy to see my mummy and papa and my sis. Most of all I was proud cuz I had been a good big brother. When I look back now I just wonder, what if we had fallen into wrong hands, what if we hadn’t met that driver uncle who saved us, what if we had never been found. We might as well had turned out as child labours or worse beggars. But I guess providence always had better plans for us.
