The beginning.

His parents got married in 1996. Just one of those arranged marriages you could see in India at that time. The time has changed now but at that moment, both of them fell in love with each other after marriage. Then, after a year, came he, Reyansh. Reyansh was not like any other guy. Mostly, children are weepy, crying for no reason, always up to something. But he, he was different. He was very calm, quiet, busy in his own little world. He didn't care if he didn't get any food. He wouldn't mind if there was someone up after him the whole day. He enjoyed his company more than any child could ever do. Born in a middle-class family, he didn't get toys as one would get as a child. You could just give him a soapbox and he will make his day out of it, playing with it, keeping it beside his head as he went to sleep. As he started to grow, in the age 4, his parents were worried if he is all right as until that time, babies start to crawl, some of them even walk. Yet he was there, on his knees, struggling to stand up. His parents were confused if his legs are working properly. But just one random day as his mother was cleaning the home, she saw Reyansh, stood up with the help of his father's scooter that was put in the garage. She couldn't help but cry, shed the tears of joy. What else could make a mother happy?

Well, that is just how Reyansh was, slow learner. 

As he grew up, at the age of 5, his parents decided to put him into a school. His parents planned to put him into a good school so that he could get the best knowledge but his grandmother who loved him too much insisted to put him into the nearest school in his early years as it might get difficult for him to go away from home for 6-7 hours, without parents and sit in one place and study. Back then, the schools weren't so advanced that they could cope up with the void of parents not being around in the child's brain. So finally, they put him in a school that was just a street away from their home. He would go there and would come back in the halftime as then he realized he couldn't stay away from home. 

Reyansh loved his grandmother. His grandmother was such a sweet lady to him. As Reyansh went to school, he became a troublesome guy. He would fight with people, push his classmates for no reason, he even used to bite his friends if he felt mocked by someone. He was frivolous and had a temper. So the teachers would complain about him to his mother or father every day as they came to pick him up. WIth the fear of getting beaten by them, as soon as he reached home, he would run to his grandmother and would sit there until everything calmed down. His grandmother would shut his mom and dad because she loved her junior so much, she wouldn't let anyone dare to bat an eye on him. She would save him every time he was about to be beaten up by his parents for his mistakes. She became his savior. 

Because of the irregular attending of school by him, he only did 6 months of school and left it. Now it was time for him to go to a school that was away from his home, though in the same city, but 10-15 km away from home. His grandmother didn't want his parents to put Reyansh in that school but she convinced herself that education is equally important as love. So now, Reyansh would wake up early in the morning and would return to home in the afternoon. Everything was going good, he attended that school for 2 years when his parents came across this another great school that had opened up which was considered as one of the good school of his town. They put him in that school.

As the days passed, he would go to school and in the summer nights, he would sleep in the chowk(open space in the house which is open to the sky to hang all the clothes to dry). It was his daily routine to fall asleep in the lap of his grandmother as she recites a new story to him daily. They were all about Indian mythology, the gods and whatnot.

He would enjoy them all, would ask questions and then would fall asleep while his grandma covering him with her arms. He had a younger brother too but her grandma felt more for Reyansh. He changed the school after his nursery and was given some home lessons as to how to add numbers and subtract them because of which he was given admission in class 2nd directly. He would go to school by a school bus and came back home by that only. At that time, he was a cute chubby looking boy with a mushroom cut. He was so sweet and calm in the bus, the elder girls would come and pull his cheeks and would say stupid things to him which sounded cute too. He wasn't into talking to girls at that time. He was still the guy, who would enjoy his own company. 

One day, being tired of girls giving so much attention to him, a guy, just one class above him, came to him with his two year junior sat around him and started to trouble him. Asking his junior to beat Reyansh and assuring him Reyansh won't do anything cause he was standing with his junior and that he would beat Reyansh if Reyansh even lifted his hand. For Reyansh, it was just unimaginable cause he thought this beating thing happened only when he was at fault and if he has been mischevious and moreover, his parents only beat him. But here, it was his senior and a junior. He thought to himself that maybe its just a one day task and that they are having fun so he didn't say anything. He came back home and didn't say a word about it. 

After a few days, that incident again took place but now on a regular basis. He was tired of being beaten up by the ones he thought were his friends, without any reason. He once tried to reply to them by giving them a reply with his fist but nothing would work cause that's when they would beat him more. The bus driver would enjoy the fight too. He would laugh and may ask them to stop but it was nothing serious. The would beat him, beat him until they had their daily dose of entertainment and then would get off the bus as their home came. 

One day he got really sick of it and told this to his grandma about how he was being bullied by these rowdies to which his grandma reacted in such a manner that lighted his hopes of getting free from this nonsense of every day. She assured him they won't do it again as she would call his school and will ask them to change the bus. But that didn't happen cause the route, the bus followed, was only one as the school had only one bus at that moment and all three of them had their home on the same route. So the route could not be changed. But the school assured his grandmother that they would look into this matter seriously and would ask the guys to stop. 

Well, they stopped but not for long. One day, a girl came to Reyansh, pulled his cheek again and joking said, " I so much wanna adopt him now cause he is so cute" which infuriated those bullies so much that they punched him so hard on his face, he almost started bleeding. That was just enough for his grandmother. She asked her son to take her to this bully's house so she could tell it all to his parents. But Reyansh's father refused and said he will talk again to the school administration and the bus driver. At that time, the school grew up economically and they started some more bus routes which resulted in the change of the routes of those bullies and Reyansh. It was a sigh of relief for him. He no longer had to worry about being beaten up on the bus after school. 

Which brought him to his next standard, class 3rd. This class proved out to be a life changer for him. 

In the late November of 2005, he was going to school like every normal guy, would come back home. But on one day, he couldn't see his grandmother at home. He asked his mom about her so she said she is at the hospital as she wasn't feeling good. It was a normal thing for him as he too would fall ill in the winters so he thought she might be feeling ill. But she didn't return home. Tension grew up in his mind and he asked his mother again to which she said: " she is admitted to the hospital but she will be good and will be back home soon". On this day, he went to sleep but without his bedtime story. Days passed by when he couldn't see her grandmother as she didn't return home.

On 15th December 2005, Reyansh returned home and her mother got him ready as he was about to see his grandmother. She took him to the hospital along with his younger brother where his grandmother was admitted. As soon as he saw his grandmother, he got all weepy, he ran to his grandmother who was lying on a hospital bed and by holding her hand, he hugged her tightly. She got tears too. He saw his father and his grandfather sitting on a stool that was beside her bed. She sat on her bed, half hugged Reyansh in his arms and said to his son: "promise me, even if he does something wrong, you wouldn't scold him or beat him, swear on me.". He stayed with his grandmother for a while and after that left with his mom and brother in a taxi to his home. On the way home, his mother told him that his grandma had a minor heart attack and that she will be having a surgery day after tomorrow in some other city. He got more worried now, knowing that her grandma is not well. He didn't know what heart attack meant but he knew it was a serious matter.

He couldn't get this new out of his head and the next day in the school, he started crying in the middle of the class. The teacher asked him what happened to which he conveyed the news to her. She tried to calm him down, but nothing could calm him down except her grandmother. On the day of surgery, he forgot it was a big day for her grandmother and he went to school early morning. At 1 PM, the school got a call from his home, asking them to send him and his brother home urgently. So the school sent both of them home in the director's car. Both of them had no idea what they were about to see.

As soon as they reached home, they saw a car standing outside. It wasn't a regular thing to see in front of a middle-class family's home back then. They walked inside their home and saw the crowd. Then he got thrown back to the news that her grandma was about to have an operation today and as soon as he could collect all the news, her mother came to him, crying and told him that his grandma was no longer in this world among them. This was terrible news for him. He started crying out loud, no one could calm him down now, not even her deceased grandmother. His aunts were all around him, drying his red eyes with their handkerchiefs.

He was lost in all the memories that he made with his grandmother. All the stories that her grandmother told him about gods came flashing in front of his eyes and he couldn't help but cry the whole day. He knew something wasn't right from the day she was taken to the hospital. He sensed it way before. His whole world came crashing down in front of his eyes. All the time he was saved from his parents by his grandmother, all the time his grandmother made him his favorite food. All the time his grandmother brought him his favorite snack whenever he was ill or sad, everything just seems to fade away now. Even though his whole family loved him, but he only wanted his grandmother's love. He wanted to sleep once more in his grandma's lap. He wanted to hear those bedtime stories again, just for once. But now, everything is gone and he is left with regrets.