| SimpleGal |
Posted
on 21-Oct-03 07:51 PM
She watched with somber eyes as her mother's figure slowly faded in the distance.
She wasn't slender and tall like most of the other women who came to drop off their little girls at the gate. She didn't wear the bright lipstick that painted their lips, nor have their curvy brows. Her eyes were not shaded in colors that matched her outfit. Her lashes were not curled up. Her hair was not well fashioned. Her teeth were not well set and breathtakingly white between the lips that parted in a wide grin. Instead, she was a short, portly woman with strong limbs. The palms of her hand were rough from use. She did not carry a hand lotion in her purse. Nor a vanity mirror to look into and groom herself from time to time. Oftentimes, she didn't even carry a purse but folded the change for the day into her bosom. Her long, jet black hair was always tied up into a bun. There was no trace of make-up on her face. Her teeth were just ordinary.
Sumeera, or Sumi as her mother fondly called her, looked away from the gate and at the sprawling landscape of her school. It was her first day. Kindergarten had sounded both exciting and frightening when her father announced this peculiar word at dinner some weeks ago.
"Sumi, you'll start kindergarten soon," he said, looking warmly into her face as he wiped a little speck of yogurt from her lips. "It's the first step to becoming a wonderful, strong, educated woman later in life," he added with beaming eyes.
"What is kindergarten, daddy?" Sumi asked timidly, but with a flutter in her belly at having correctly pronounced this apparently difficult word.
"It's the first step in school," her father said affectionately.
"The first step?" Sumi looked puzzled.
"Like when you took your first step dear. And then you slowly started to take more steps and see, now you can walk, and run, and dance like a little ballerina," he chuckled as he teased the lock of hair that hid her beautiful, wide eyes.
"Oh, so it's the first step?" Sumi mused over this explanation. "And what is being educated, daddy?" she asked after having mentally recited her father's earlier statement.
He shot a quick glance at his wife who sat across him, meticulously discarding the bones from the Roe fish that she had cooked for dinner. She did not lift her eyes to reciprocate his hurried look.
"Well, being educated means a lot of thing...." he couldn't finish as Sumi threw another question at him.
"Yeah, but what does it Really mean?"
"It means you can read, write, and speak very well to many people," was the best answer he could give his 6 year old daughter, in the span of time she allocated him before another question came flying at him.
"Oh, that's nice. So, I will be like you, daddy?"
"Yes, but better than me," he tilted his head and nudged her lovingly on her warm, pudgy cheeks.
More laterz........
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