AND THERE HE WAS WITH A STONE IN HIS HAND

How can you have sympathy with the person who is ready to break your window with a stone? You may think that I’m crazy because a normal person’s reaction under such circumstances will be that of anger or fear.

Let me explain and start from the beginning.

We had moved to New Jersey just a week ago. There was a dense jungle behind our house. We really enjoyed mornings and evenings because there were so many birds and animals which would come near our window. But the nights were horrible. There were lights, but they made the tree branches look really scary. The tree branches which seemed to dance during the day appeared to take horrifying shapes during the night. I’d be able to see all of my favourite horror movie characters take shape right outside my window.

So it was 11:30 pm, I couldn’t sleep. And then I saw a shadow. For a moment I thought my brain was playing tricks on me, and that it was just my imagination. But then the shadow on the window became bigger and I could clearly see that there was a man with a big stone in his hand.

“Oh my God! This is real! Somebody is trying to break into my house!”

I wanted to wake my husband up but this guy here was ready to hit my window. I jumped out of bed and shouted at him at the top of my voice.

“HEY!”

I never thought that yelling drill commands for the NCC Parade would actually help me someday. There were three immediate reactions in response to my loud roar. First, my husband woke up. Second, my baby boy started crying. And the third one was the best one, where the man stopped and moved backwards. I opened the window at that moment and asked him

“Why do you want to break my window?”

He started apologising, and said “I’m sorry. Really sorry. I’m your neighbour. Came out for a cigarette, and my door got locked. My baby girl is crying inside, and I thought the best way to get inside the house would be by breaking the window.”

He got confused, and instead of breaking his window, he came to break mine. My anger turned into sympathy, and I suggested him to call the supervisor as he had duplicate keys. That day I realized that it’s not just moms, but dads can also go to any extent for their crying daughters.


-      Deepali Trivedi

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