Have You Seen My Parents?
I lost my way from a party when I was 6 years old. A newly married couple found me crying in a convenience store and handed me back to my dad and mum. This letter is everything I want to say to that couple, 20 years later.
Dear Mister and Misses,
It’s hard to remember specific events from childhood. I don’t obviously remember everyday from when I was a child — but I do remember this one particular night. Not the one before, not the one after; the night you were shopping in that convenience store. The night you found a small boy crying his eyes out in search of his parents. The night you wandered out of your way and carried the boy in your arms and walked for hours in the night in search of them.
20 years have passed since that night; but the images remain clear. I’m writing this letter to thank you for your kindness. And I pray to God with hope you’re reading this letter, or that one day you will.
Why is it important for me to tell you?
I can remember every second of the night after I decided to follow my dad’s friend as he went outside the party house in search for his parked car. It is as if the event accessed a special place in my brain to register feelings. Every key moment after that remains fresh in my memory as I lost track of people I knew and the roads started getting darker. After a while, I realized I was walking further from the party house deeper into an unknown suburb.
My 6 year old brain started simulating my own ending. Would I be kidnapped by a gang of hooligans or sold to a neighbouring country? Would I be made to work in the mines or hunt animals for food? I started weeping badly thinking about how mum warned me not to stay out in the playground until dark, or how dad kept calling home to see if I was safe-home from school. I started missing my unfinished computer game and my friends with whom I was yet to discuss the next cartoon. That was a defining moment in my life. I was ejected from my comfortable life. I could feel for the first time ever - what it meant to be helpless and scared.
After the chaos and cluelessness in my head, my world came back to me — thanks to you. I was then again in my mum and dad’s arms. I remember you finding me in that convenience store while the shopkeeper offered me biscuits so I wouldn’t cry. I remember you promising the shopkeeper you will hand me back to my parents. Back in my comfortable world again. I then remember you carrying me in your new wedding dress, taking long strides while telling me everything is going to be okay. The next thing I remember is seeing my mum on the ground, now weeping with joy after seeing me. And that’s all I want to remember.
And I like to believe in the butterfly effect: collection of events around you that could either change the outcome around you or change you.
I also want to believe that this had an important hand in inspiring a trait in me:
Today I am scared of losing direction. Not just on the street, but in life too. However, every time I feel lost, I have been able to snap myself out of it. I am grateful of this life. I feel this has a lot to do with what happened that night. This is why it’s important for you to know this: you have affected someone’s life with a small gesture.
Did it affect your life in any way?
Every now and then I think of how our lives are affected by small things we do. Where a sudden action you take may trigger a chain reaction. We both parted ways after you handed me to my mum, but I wonder what you did the next day.
If I walked in your shoes and relived that night, I would certainly feel extremely good about myself. I hope you felt good for a long time for what you did.
And I wonder what you’re doing now. I wonder if you have a nice little family. I wonder if you went on holidays together and I wonder if you lived a perfect Nepali life of joy. And sometimes, I wonder if you remember the night at all.
Even years after the evening, we gather around the living room and talk about you. Mum tells me about how she felt weak and fell to the ground holding my 2 year old sister, while my dad and his friends scrambled in search of me. She describes the chaos and the range of emotions that hit them. Many lives were changing until two supposed strangers made effort and undertook responsibility they didn’t have to, but did; because that’s what human beings are meant to do.
So the next time when I walk down the street and see an elderly lady who needs a hand carrying her bag of groceries up the stairs— I shall give a hand. If I see a tourist needing help with directions—I shall ask. If I see someone who’s in a hurry on the train or on the street — I shall give way. Because I learnt this very important lesson that night — be kind, it will definitely make the world a better place - one step at a time.
A sincere thank you from the boy.
Saheel
