Own Space

Mr Saini was five months past his 67. Every day he would come out to walk in the evening and would spend some time in the playground near the government school.



While the ground was primarily used by the students of the school since the school lacked a playground, others could go there as well and Mr Saini had been coming here for the past twenty-five years in the evening.



Initially it was just a patch of land which slowly developed into this ground with benches, sidelining bushes, a badminton court on one side and an open gym on the other.



Mr Saini had a jewellery shop. It belonged to his father and initially both of them worked together but later on Mr Saini had to completely take over when his father became restricted by old age. Later, Mr Saini’s daughter Padma joined him and soon she would have to take on the responsibility entirely if she wished to or Mr Saini would just sell it all off, there was no kind of pressure on Padma either way.



Mr Saini’s father was a forensic accountant who later quit his job and opened this jewellery shop. The shop had completely changed the living standards of the Saini family, elevating it to new levels. So, it was only obvious that Mr Saini’s father would want his son to take over this fortune making business.



Mr Saini was always thankful for the life he got, but sometimes very rarely but surely, he wished if the jewellery shop never existed, then maybe he could have fulfilled his dream of becoming a planetary scientist. A planetary scientist primarily works on studying the geology of planets and moons.



That was the main reason why Mr Saini often talked to Padma about what she wanted to do in life from time to time, to give her the conversation he himself did not get or tried to get. A family business has a lot more emotions invested in it than money and other resources, thus generally people in a family feel that emotional need to continue on with it.



Nowadays, Mr Saini was going to the shop less, as Padma was efficiently taking care of more responsibilities. Mr Saini was also speaking less nowadays, he was becoming more preoccupied with his thoughts, thoughts of ‘what could have been’. He had also started watching documentaries related to space, and there were moments when in the silence his mind would steer off into space.



“Do you think there are aliens out there Mr Saini?” asked Vipul, an eleven years old boy who came to play in the ground daily and had developed a friendly bond with Mr Saini. They talked about space and Mr Saini honestly hoped he could inspire Vipul to take on his dream.



“Aliens? There could be.. Why? Are you going to go out and look for them?” asked Mr Saini



“I think I know one,” said Vipul



“Really? Who is it?” asked Mr Saini, a little amused



“Our Neighbour Mr Puri, whenever we are running around, he comes out to scream at us to stay away from the flower pots outside his house. How can someone always be so angry? He has to be an alien,” said Vipul



Mr Saini laughed, “Then you better study more about space and aliens and who knows maybe you will be able to find the truth behind Mr Puri.”



Vipul was from a family which had financially constraints due to an ailing family member, so unknown to Vipul, Mr Saini had taken upon himself to pay for his education and he had told Padma to see to it that it is done in case Mr Saini did not live long enough to see Vipul complete his education.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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