The ugly ducklings

He wasn't exactly sure how or where his life began. The earliest memory he had was of standing on the cold concrete floor of a rundown orphanage in a rural village, shivering with cold and fear. He didn't remember who had brought him there, or why, but it was the first home for him.

Every once in a while he'd witness the adoption ritual where a couple or a family would come to the orphanage to pick one of them. All the kids would be decorated and presented as adorable as possible while they'd wait with hope and foreboding, well overdue for fate's blessing. They'd all be stood up in a line till one was picked and taken to a new familial home.

He, along with the remaining children, would wonder what they lacked for they were never picked. Why were they not deserving of such generosity? Eventually he began to hide, evading all eyes behind a shelf or under a bed whenever someone would come to adopt, till one day he got caught.

The seeker was an old professor who used to visit the orphanage on a regular basis on his way home. He was a widower with a young daughter with whom he had lacerated all ties once she married the man of her choice against his wishes. He now chose to live alone with his time shared between solitude and loneliness.

The old man crept down and asked him gently, "Hey, were you crying?" The little face with dried streams of saline waters shook in denial. The old man continued, "But you know it's good to cry, because when it rains a lot you get to see a rainbow. Have you seen one?" The four year old nodded with a whispered 'yes'.

That was all it took. He left his first home with the old professor the next day.

Blessed. Finally.


Based on wonderment and a scene from the Pakistani play - Dhoop Kinarey