Piggy Bank for a Piggy Bank.
Diwali is one of my most favorite festivals. Not because of the lights, sweets, fireworks or it’s real mythological significance, but because of its magical powers of taking you back to the time and be nostalgic about the things you were indifferent about in your childhood. If it is not happening to you, then you might not be cleaning your house properly. It is Diwali season, and I found a piggy-bank with some coins in it, which I got gifted when I was 8.
It was a wonderful Sunday morning in the summers of ’01. The only thing, I wanted in my life was to have a TV video game, but then I had found an alternative also. I finished my energy tonic (Bournvita) and with two rupees pocket money in my kurta pocket, hope in my eyes, and determination to kill everyone, I went to the corner Game parlor shop. For two rupees coin, I got one game coin and two fifty paisa coins. I did the math right already in my head. But soon everything shattered, as there was a queue waiting for their chance to play. I returned home sad, depressed with now three coins in my Kurta pocket but with a hope to go back in the evening.
I entered the house with a smile on my face as I can smell the Aloo Parantha being made in the kitchen. I sat with Dad and Di, who were already having their breakfast. I was hungry, but Maa gave the first parantha to Dad and second to Di. It was my turn when I started playing with the coins in my pocket. I put the two fifty paisa coins in my mouth because I was hungry and seconds later I found that I swallowed both of them.
Next, I found myself hanging upside down with my legs in Dad’s hand and Daadi hitting my back with her fist. Nothing happened. They even asked me to voluntarily vomit. I couldn’t tie my shoe-laces back then. I tried though, ended up coughing only.
Minutes later, I found my self in a doctor’s clinic.
‘What did he swallow?’, Doctor asked.
‘Coins’, My dad said
‘Coins?’, he was shocked at the mention of plurality.
He tried his best, but couldn’t even take out a single one of the two.
‘We have to do the endoscopy?’, He said in the same tone as they say in TV for the operation.
During all this while, all I was worried about the third game coin in my pocket. Anyway, Endoscopy happened, and they successfully got both the coins out. I woke up with pain in my jaw and a heavy head due to anesthesia. Dad was standing in front of me with a gift in his hand.
It was a piggy-bank.
‘Next time use this one, instead of being a one’, My dad said.
********
The same three coins are still there in the piggy-bank
