Pretty Girl

INNOCENCE             

I see a little school girl today waiting for her carpool.She was dressed in white with two pony tails and had this huge pink school bag on her shoulder.She seemed disturbed.She was fidgeting with her water bottle.She was standing in front of a temple.After a while I see her moving closer to a 'nayantara'flower plant.Her hands stretched to pluck a pink bright flower.But,when she saw an elderly man approach,she quickly retreated.She stood quietly waiting for her opportunity.Then,again she stretched her arm.A bicycle passed.She failed again.Her eyes searched for looking eyes.Her eyes said she feared getting caught.Then,in the third attempt she succeeded.She plucked the flower and looked at it,studying its color and shape.She smiles,and puts it in her bag(Success is sweet).She stands idle again.Then,again she goes for another red flower.She plucks the flower but her face said she isn't happy with it.She throws it on the ground.She hides the plucked flower under a stone.The flower perhaps gave way some sticky fluid as I see her rubbing her hands on her white dress.But,the thing that really touched me was after throwing the flower,she folded her hands in prayer gesture in front of the temple apologizing for plucking the flowers,may be to this girl the temple god stood as an eye witness of her innocent crime.She stands idle again weighed down by her school bag waiting impatiently.

This girl is the concrete form of the abstract innocence- a virtue which has become extinct in the modern world.