Summer vacation had always been my favourite part of the year, just like many other Indian kids! Maa, papa, bhaiya and I made sure we travel a lot and meet other members of our extended family. Visiting our old family home, visiting nana-nani’s place, hanging out with cousins, sleeping until noon and non-stop eating! Even maa and papa did not follow the ‘you have to bath everyday’ rule!

Well, all of this decreased as we grew up. My grandparents perished one by one and everyone else started fighting for the little land and money that they had left behind. Family became foe and cousins became awkward strangers. We four were left with a forsaken vacation thereafter.

We are all grown up now and these memories have started fading. It was 6 years ago that bhaiya got hired by a construction firm in Dubai. About 2 years later, I got a handsome job in Doha as an art instructor. I was allowed to live out of the country only because bhaiya lived nearby. Maa and papa wanted to continue staying in India. Bhaiya always travelled overnight to my place on festivals and holidays even for a day to make sure I don’t get stranded alone on happy days. We celebrated holidays by roaming about the city, shopping for each other and eating junk for dinner.

During his foremost year in Dubai, bhaiya gifted maa and papa a trip to UAE with his first salary during the summer vacation. I joined them too and we had the time of our lives- reliving old memories and enjoying together like we did in India. Since then, it became a tradition. Every summer vacation, we picked a new spot in the Middle East and spent the most happening time of the year together.

This year was different... this year was special. We all planned to stay at my place and tour Doha. I had saved and bought a gold chain each for maa, papa and bhaiya. It was the first time that I was offering them something. I had also planned to introduce the love of my life to them, and ask them if I could marry him. But, things did not happen accordingly.

A few days before the arrival of maa, papa and bhaiya at Doha, I woke up to a shocking news. I could not digest what I saw on the TV. Many neighbouring countries including UAE had broken ties with Qatar. I did not care about the crisis, I did not care about the accusation made, and I did not care about its certainty... it was not the matter of concern for me then. I could only see a failing plan... a failing tradition.

I did not know how to react. I was angry and anxious at the same time. I wanted to run away from here. Papa sounded very scared on the phone and maa was crying. Bhaiya convinced them that the situation is nothing to be worried about. But then, we all were highly disappointed.

I could feel the nostalgia seeping in. Back in the past, relations got abandoned with the family, plans changed, people separated, amity died. I could see everything repeating.  

For whatever reasons it may be, why making a connection and keeping the relation alive has to be so demanding? Why do most relations end up in a brawl? I had lost faith in humanity once again. No connection ever remains forever. Now, all that I could do is wait... and hope. At least, hope remains forever.

“Maa, do you see the big jumping horse?” she almost plunged from her seat pointed out to the airplane window.

“Jumping horse? Where, Tiya?” the lady sitting on the aisle seat asked.

“There.... in the clouds, maa!” she was still pointing and looking incessantly at the clouds outside.

“Oh, yes. Now I see it.” Her mother confirmed and her shocked face went smiling.

I was on the window seat and she was sitting between me and her mother. I had been noticing her since the time we boarded the airplane. The adult looking fair girl, named Tiya (which I overheard), had a slightly twisted knee and behaviour of a 12 year old. Autism, a disorder widely found but improperly judged, had her. She was initially whispering to her mother while we got on the plane but later got very excited looking at the shining white clouds passing by. Her consciousness was fixed on the window and the views outside.

“Hi, do you want to exchange seats with me?” I asked with a smile.

Her almost-smiling face turned to a wide-eyed shock as she saw me looking at her. She turned away immediately, moving her eyes from one thing to the other timidly.

Her mother noticed and smiled at me.

“She is not used to talking to strangers, I am sorry." the lady said in the politest of manner. That is when I noticed that Tiya was holding her mother’s hand tightly throughout.

“Oh! No problem, aunty. You can ask her... if she wishes to sit by the window.” I said.

 They exchanged a few more whispers. I looked outside and around, trying to act natural. But just then, a sharp unexpected scream startled me.

“AAAAAA....." "Hahahaaha.” “Hehehheh..."AAEE...”
Two kids in the preceding row were playing a strange game where they punched each other one after another.  

“Stop it, you two!” their mother, sitting adjacent to them, shouted out loud. With no positive response, she turned back to the movie she was watching... plugging her earphones.

They did not stop. For which I had to put on in my earphones too and play some nice songs on my new phone. I checked on Tiya; she looked disturbed. She had her shaking hands covering the ears and an agitated facial expression. Her mother was comforting her without saying a word. She calmed a little after a while... That is the magic of mothers, I suppose.  

I had a Disney animated movie on my phone memory; which I played to pass the time. After a little while, I felt Tiya’s head coming closer to mine. I tried to look at her from the side of my eyes. She had her eyes stuck on my phone, probably curious about the animated movie which I was playing. I tilted the screen a little so that she could see clearly. This time she smiled back at me.

Soon afterwards, we started talking. I asked her simple random things and she replied to each of it with a smile. She even let me see her drawing copy in which she scribbled words, animals and stick human figures. She was no longer holding her mother’s hand.

I could see Tiya's mother gently looking at her daughter with love, on whatever she did or said. Tiya got scared when the airplane experienced slight turbulence and when the naughty kids shouted and kicked the seats repeatedly. But there was no disrespect or anger of any sort; not on Tiya or on her mother. I guess, her mother chose to be calm and subtle at every time... so that she could teach her daughter to be the same.

Being a sober mother, having Tiya, nourishing and cherishing her....all this and she was smiling. This made me question the unimportant things that I complain about every now and then.
That day, I did not expect I would sonder and understand the real meaning of it. I did not expect Tiya and a parent to Tiya, could teach me lessons for life. I learned to stay, and to stay kind. It became clear to me that is not about the heights that I would reach during my existence, but it is about the little milestones that I create for myself on the ground.

Sometimes, people whom we think need assistance, assist us in making our lives better by enlivening the little lamps of goodness inside. I thought it was Tiya’s curiosity that bought her to me, but in actuality, it was her generosity.