It was during one afternoon, that I bought my train ticket to take a local and go shopping. While waiting for the train to come, I noticed a mother and her son, seated next to me.
That little boy, with eyes so big and expressive, smiled at me. I smiled back. All these little boys and girls have a mind of their own. Sometimes they are friendly and then sometimes upset at “some toy not bought episode”. So, generally, I never get into a conversation with little ones in public places. If I make a conversation and they start showing their tantrum side of not wanting to answer me, it becomes a dilemma for the parent and they keep insisting that the child answer me. It puts me in a fix as the smiling child suddenly glares angrily at me.
But this little boy was different. He didn’t stop with smiling. He started pointing at me and made some signs with his hands and his mother constantly hushing him up.
I wanted to ask what was he making signs about, but the train came and we all started boarding the train.
Luck had it that day, that the mother and son duo sat opposite to me, as the little boy was fascinated with the window seat, like me 😀
It started again – the sign language, the smile, the pointing fingers at me. I was curious and started talking with his mother.
The boy is all of 6 years old. And he is deaf and dumb too. The parents have lived with his disability, without knowing what to do, in their quaint little village. They have recently moved to Chennai, after coming to know that there is a school for such children and that they too can learn to read and write and communicate with others. So, the mother is taking him to the special school. Since he has learnt so many things in sign language, which the mother is yet to comprehend, she is taking time to understand those signs.
Those expressive eyes, the moving hands and fingers will never leave my heart….but the mother and son duo got down 3 stations later, to go to the school.
I wish I could be six again so I could stand next to him, watching the scenes go quickly by, play with him a game or two, smile and talk with those big expressive eyes using my eyes and signs too. After all, why do we need language to communicate between two small children ??
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This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.
UmaS Reflections 