A DIFFERENT BEAT

I switched on the O Watt bulb in our room and sat up from a distant dream snapped abruptly by the whining I heard. She was sitting there on her bed with her legs neatly folded under her pillow. She had her elbows on the pillow and her face was cusped in her tender fingers that had played with mine many a time in the past. Her hair fell loose on either side of her cheeks and she was staring at the light blue pillow cover. I got up from my bed and went and sat next to her. Her pillow had a wet drop of her tear. The drop got larger as I looked at it. But my daughter never looked back at me. “Munna” I waited for her to look at me. She was lost in her realm of I don’t know what. “Munna,” I tried once again. She did not respond. That moment I realized my daughter, sitting near me was far away from me. Far far away where my helplessness was measured in her indifference to the world around. When your dear ones do not respond to your call or sound, you are like a man caught in a whirlpo