An afternoon at a school gate

(This is written by my dear Ashutosh Bhaiyya)

The afternoon sun beat down on my face forcing me to squint at the gate of the school which had swallowed my wife and somehow seemed to have digested her completely. I had prefered the glare of the Sun to the cool shade of trees on opposite side the street in which I had parked my car among the multitude of vehicles ranging from taxis, maruti vans, mini buses, bigger buses and a horde of personal vehicles belonging to the parents and other guardians of the students. 
At exactly 2.30 pm the school gates suddenly spewed out with a vengeance a motly crowd of big and small school kids who now turned the afternoon calm into a furious and noisy madness. The kids reminded me of dust particles seen in a shaft of light in a recently swept room. The random unpredictable movements created a melange of similarly attired.

A little calf trapped in the human crowd, children crying "cow cow". Calf gets hit by a car whose mudguard gets loosened.

The girls' fight turns to serious verbal fight, two kids chasing the calf. It hides behind my car. One small kid, lean, dreamy, snapping his fingers and listening to the sound by snapping them next to his ear. A musical child. Another jackson in making.

cars with parents, cars with drivers, cars with grandparents, choking the narrow street. The kids could have used the school bus. All big cars. Vulgur show of money. Small girls chiding the taxi driver.The girls' fight gets vicious. They take out their water bottles using them as clubs. One club hits my car narrowly missing the rear window. I shout at them but they go on fighting relentlesly. Three kids come to peek at the calf who is by now scared and confused. The kids try to scare him more to see it jump and bump into cars. I scold them and they back away. The yellow coloured battle tanks carry away the army of human offsprings. The future pests on the earth. The street becomes deserted. The calf dares to come out from behind my car and slowly trudges towards the far end of the road.

Motherless, shelterless, its food snatched by the mighty humans, the poor animal searches for some relief in this concrete jungle created in the name of civilisation.