The Ride

Time seemed to have stopped. At least Golu felt so. His eyes were glued to the wall clock which seemed to have frozen. He was convinced that the clock had been tampered with. Or maybe the maintenance guy forgot to replace the worn-out batteries. Lazy bum! Didn't he know how crucial time was? Yes, that's right. It was the maintenance guy's fault that the clock was taking so long to strike two o'clock this afternoon.

Sitting at his desk in the classroom, with only five minutes to two o'clock, Golu squinted his eyes at the minute hand of the clock. He willed it to move. As if he could speed it up with his stare. The absence of second hand was making it even more difficult for him to track time. The teacher had finished her subject and was giving some last minute instructions about homework. On a normal day, Golu would have been attentive. He could also have been cooking up some mischief with his friends or splitting teams for a game they would be playing before the school bus arrived. But today, everything around him faded, as he impatiently drowned in his eagerness to dash out of his class. Today, he won't be taking the bus. His dad was coming to pick him up. They had to go somewhere with mum. Golu didn't know where. And he was least concerned. All he knew was that his dad would pick him up on his scooter and that's what he was excited about. Golu loved scooter rides with dad. Taking a taxi, an auto, or a bus was boring. These rides were a task. One would get on, take a seat, follow a predetermined route and simply wait for the destination to arrive. What was the fun in that? But scooter was different. It was their own ride. Sitting behind his dad, he would get an unhindered view of the surroundings and he had all the time in the world to admire it. He would point to anything and dad would tell him about it. When there was traffic, dad would sometimes take a shortcut and Golu would feel like an explorer discovering some forbidden island. He had never experienced anything else so liberating. And today, he was going to experience it again. He remembered the route the bus took every day. Today he would explore it all on his favourite ride. He would ask dad to take an alternate route or a shortcut to home if possible. It was going to be fun. He could barely hold himself together.

Finally, the clock struck two and the school bell rang. The whole school echoed with an involuntary customary cheer. Golu grabbed his backpack and bolted out. He ran through the hallway, down the stairs, across the school ground and within a few minutes, was at the school gate. The gate was already crowded. He made his way through to an elevated spot. But dad was not there. He decided to let the crowd disperse for a better view. Then he looked again. But he couldn't find his dad. He figured that dad must still be on his way. Just then a friend came running and asked him to hurry as the school bus had arrived. He smiled and told the friend to go ahead as his dad would be coming to pick him up. Saying those words out loud made him feel assured. As his friend left, he lightened up again.

He didn't know how long he had been waiting but there was still no sign of his dad. But why? He had told dad in the morning that the school gets over at two o'clock. And it was two already. Did dad mix up the timings? What if dad had forgotten to pick him up? Maybe he himself was late. It was a few minutes past two actually. Dad must have come and left when he didn't find him at the gate at two o'clock. He blamed the maintenance guy again. That must be it. This made complete sense. He had missed dad by a few minutes. And it meant that dad must not have gotten far. He could catch up if he hurried. He made his decision and quickly came out of the school gate.

Without further ado, he started following his bus route. With determined, quick steps, he was out on the main road in no time. He had been here hundreds of times, but never on foot. He paused to look around. What he saw was an altogether different version of the picture he had in mind. That wide-open road, the petrol pump his bus occasionally halted at, the traffic signal up ahead, that girls' school at the corner, that signboard for the hospital in the next block, everything was same, yet he felt strange. Today he was not just a jolly spectator from the bus, but a part of this scenery himself. He didn't know what to make of it. None of this looked as exciting as it would on dad's scooter. He felt alone. It didn't take long for his loneliness to turn into anxiety, then into melancholy and finally to panic. How would he even go home? A sore lump strained in his throat. His breathing became heavy. Dad, please come and get me! He scurried ahead, ignoring the surroundings. Please, dad, come fast. He increased his pace. His steps set him on an autopilot mode. He crossed roads, took one turn after another, but didn't stop. Where are you, dad? The more he panicked, the faster he went. He didn't even know how long had he been walking and how far had he come. Was that it? Was he lost? Would he ever see his home again?

"Golu!". He turned. It was his dad. Amidst gloomy clouds of anxiety and desperation, the vibrant Sun had come out.

His dad had reached his school a bit late. When he couldn't find Golu, he asked around, and finally ended up at the Principal's office. He called home from the office only to find that Golu wasn't on the school bus either. No one at school had any idea about Golu's whereabouts. Dad was furious and had created quite a ruckus back there. It was only on his way back that he found Golu.

"What are you doing here?" Dad was stumped.  

"You weren't there when the school got over, so I went ahead to catch up with you." Golu's eyes sparkled with delight as he actually thought that he had succeeded.

Amidst surprise, disbelief and amusement, dad couldn't decide on his reaction. He simply smiled and said, "Okay, hop on!"   

The words did their magic. Forgetting his ordeal and filled with euphoria, Golu fervently obliged.