A Broken Toy

Brokenness is the Essence of Existence; it’s the Force of Life that Crafts Jewels.

Riya was a shy, little girl who loved dolls. She always held one around her tender arms and requested her aunt to sew its clothes. Once she stitched a beautiful white gown. Riya was extremely delighted to see her little doll wearing a white snowy gown. She was often in quest of ear rings to gift it. They shared a unique relationship. She would talk and share her thoughts with the doll, little it mattered that the lifeless piece couldn’t respond. Secretly she would take her mother’s make-up items and apply, imitating her with an air of beauty consciousness.

   Once she was caught and warned, but her adventurous friendship never ended. She was considered small enough to go to school and not even allowed to go outside to play for the fear of learning new mischiefs. But the inside of her heart felt a strange desire to move out, take the fresh air in and play with friends. Lack of friends compelled her to imagine the doll as one and proceed with an imaginative conversation with the doll.

   That night, she secretly went to the roof-top and looked down. She sighed and felt awed at the small objects downwards. She began measuring a red car through her fingers and felt a sudden flush of felicity. She smiled. She was standing in a dreamlike state on the verge of the roof. That very moment she found her mother standing behind, extremely worried. She carried her in her lap and hugged affectionately. Next day, a cat dragged her doll from her room and chewed it, separating away the spherical head from the body. After finding her doll in that state, Riya wept with two thick streams of tears.  A toy was broken but she felt as if her only friend has deserted her. Some portion of her heart felt an ache as the doll’s remnants were thrown in the dustbin. Her father saw the cloud in her eyes and bought a new doll for his doll.

Such is a happy childhood, innocent with the occasional gushing of tears, smoothened with the love of parents. The pains of broken toys don’t last long. A child’s first encounter with brokenness is that of shock, then acceptance, then forgetfulness. It’s a good lesson for adults as well who fail to forget the brokenness, get immersed in its flood, willing to be carried away to the land of gloom.

So relax, accept, forget and move on,

The currents of bliss will meet you at dawn!