I need ...

From the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata.

On my way to office in the morning, I start early to office these days, about 8.30 in the morning, to beat the traffic mainly, and its about that time all the little kids ride out to their schools. And today, I was rather slowly riding, listening to by black cat's sweet purring, and this queer scene caught my eyes.

She was a very little girl, tiny infact, perched on the back of a black Bajaj Avenger cruiser bike, and her dad was in front, on the way to drop her at school. She had a typical oversized green school sweater that reached almost till her knees, covering her skirt. A bit of her checquered skirt was though still visible on one of her legs. She had one feet of her placed on the pillion's footrest, and this left her in a queer position of having to hang the other leg free in the air on the other side as her legs were not long enough to rest both of them on footrests. Still, her tiny shoes were not falling off for the little buckles. She had nowhere to hold on that black beast, and could only huddle onto her dad's shirt in a full embrace, but even in full stretch, her hands were barely reaching till his rib cage. Her head as a result had to be held to a side, with her cropped hair constantly being ruffled by the wind. She had a pale face and I couldn't exactly decide whether she was smiling as the wind caressed her face.

I passed the Avenger in a minute, and for a moment, she looked up and through my helmet's visor, my eyes locked with hers. They still had that indecipherable expression in them.

Would he be loving his daughter so much, doting on to her, like Rhett Butler, when he would pet and love his little blue eyed girl, Bonnie Blue Butler? Taking her to walk with him in the evenings, adjusting his large strides with her tiny steps, and answering her thousand questions. Maybe taking her for a ride in his black beast, with her perched in the front, her hair blown back by the wind.

And she, what would she be feeling. Her life is just starting, there's so much of it awaiting for her to breeze through. So far away from now, would she need him then, just the way she needs him now? And ... would she ever regret having to need him like this now?