THE BEAST WITH THE MILLION EYES AND THE HORN BUTTON

Braving the bright evening sun of early March, I am deep in the U Tube story “The Beast with a Million Eyes” carried in the current issue of TIME, when I am distracted by the piercing sound of an electric horn.

 A bit annoyed, I look down from the balcony  trying to identify the culprit, where I notice  a couple : husband and wife, lap top across shoulders, a working couple, back from work, alighting from the Motorcycle, who have distracted me.

 I also see a toddler, waddling towards them as fast as he can on his baby short legs, whom I had earlier seen playing, in the lawn below, under the watchful eyes of an elderly lady, possibly the grand mother.

 The beep of the horn was the signalling   the child that the parents were back home.

 The excited mother, possibly also under  the burden of guilt, with open arms, steps forward towards the child, who totally ignores her  and  continues  moving towards the father, standing net to the bike, in the process  he stumbles and   falls.

 Lifted from the ground by the father and made to stand once again, strangely the child ignores even him and has eyes only for the bike, in the mean time the disappointed mother, hiding her hurt feelings, retraces her steps and joins them.

 The father picks up the child and places him on the fuel tank, the mother, once again, is back on her perch on the small seat, the father kick starts the engine while the child gropes for the horn button and gleefully gives a long beep and the trio take off.

 I keep hearing the frequent tweets of the horn till they disappear round the corner.

 I am saddened, to release how times have changed:   a child prefers a horn button to the embrace and cuddle from the mother and father in that order.  In a contemplating mood, I return my attention back the Beast with the Million Eyes, staring at me in the TIME Magazine