GLITTERING LITTLE EYES
SHORT STORY – Pramod Desaneni
In the Bylanes of a calm and remote town Chanderpur ,is the house of Noor an eight year old girl, whose daily routine is to wake up early, help her grandfather in his morning chores ,then get ready for school and come back to help her grandfather. Today as every day, she leaves to school, passing through the lanes ,she reaches her favorite place right before the school, a wall filled with movie posters. The glitter and glamour of the posters, and the heroines in them, take away the imagination of Noor all over the place, at least for a moment. She is jolted back to reality with the vehicle sounds, with a slight sigh she continues to school .
While coming back from school in the regular route she notices something different, small crowd gathered and talking. Noor spots her Uncle Nasser chacha in the crowd, she with her excitement to know about what the crowd is talking, runs towards Naseer and asks him. A film shoot is going to happen tomorrow here says Naseer . The sound of the words reverb in Noor’s mind as she couldn’t control her excitement. She runs faster than normal to let her grandfather know about the shooting.
She pushes the door open , inside is her grandfather looking tired trying to reach for his medicine . Noor doesn’t pay attention to that, she just jumps and sits beside her grandfather and starts telling him about the film shoot that’s about to happen… She is very much excited at the thought of watching a movie star and goes on telling her grandfather how much she loves to watch the film actress during the shoot, their makeup, their dress and their expensive shoes and on and on, while her grandfather looking at her excitement and having his medicine….he rests back into his bed as she goes to make food for his grandfather. That night she doesn’t sleep as the thoughts of watching a heroine in real make her sleep less.
Silence of the night is disturbed by Azaan, as it is the morning now, Noor Jumps out of her bed, goes and wakes her grandfather, and goes off to do the daily chores all the while talking to her grandfather about the shooting, and how she has to reach there early to see the actress. Tired grandfather gradually sleeps again listening to Noor. Its late morning now and Noor starts running from house to school and reaches the shooting area, to her surprise almost the whole town is there, she is disappointed but pushes her way through the crowd to reach front. Her heart stops the beat as she sees the heroine setting her makeup, Noor is awestruck as she looks at each move of the heroine and her starry tantrums, and the police security around her. As Noor looks around there are quite a few police men, around 10 as she counts each one. “Action “Shouts the director and the actress perform an emotional scene, Noor is looking and watching carefully.
All the town is at the shoot and eerie silence in the bylanes of chanderpur. Two police man come out of one of the houses and go to check another house in Noor’s lane, They approach her house and barge into her house. Her grandfather is woken up by the sound, looks around to find two policemen standing. They start searching his house as grandfather looking at them. He asks what are they looking for, Money … They reply, confused grandfather asks “ Whose money”, they catch hold of him and say “ your money” …take out whatever you have and give it to us. One police holds him tight as the other searches for the money. The old grandfather looking helpless as the police man searches for money , stumbles upon a box…..opens it to find a bundle of notes tied up in an old paper. One police man signals the other and shows him the money. “This is a lot of money and thanks for keeping it safe for us , its ours now” . Grandfather on the other hand is helplessly looking and crying about the money “please give it back..its my life’s earning and my life depends on it” . The police men push grandfather away, they run out locking the door from outside….Frail grandfather falls down and in a act of desperation, he reaches out to the box, which had the money, in hope that he might find some, as he fanatically searches the box, his medical documents are scattered all over the place, he picks on which says “ Cancer treatment – Chemotherapy – Next visit”. He collapses down holding the paper in his hand and sobs heavily.
While on the street the shooting is over and the whole crew leave in a van , Noor runs back to her house with excitement and joy, Noor opens the door and finds her grandfather in a corner, Noor doesn’t pay attention to him much, she just goes about telling how she saw the heroine, her clothes , her makeup , how she acted, how she danced. Her grandfather on the other hand notices her joy and happiness , slowly tucks of the medical reports into the box, Noor comes and sits beside him , still explaining her joy of seeing the shooting and how wonder full it was . As she speaks her grandfather patiently listens to her with a smile, as he seems to forget all the pain by just looking at the sparkle of joy in her eyes.
The van of the film crew stops in a desolated corner, all the people get down. The policemen , heroine and director ,get down and everyone takes out money from the pockets , the money they stole from the house of the chanderpur and share it. The policemen change the dress to civil dress , the heroine gets her share of money, the director gets his share, they all share a good laugh as to how they fooled every one . The imposters, they all move on to a different town.
Back at Noor’s place , Noor is still talking to her grandfather and he is keenly listening to her, hugs her tight.
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