Phone Home - Sumonk

ET, captured in the home of Elliot, takes some time to make friends with the household.

Little ET, after getting into these hands of Human aliens, tries to contact the counterparts, somewhere in the universe. ET tries all possible means, picks up every little object in the house and tries to convey that he wants to send the message home and I am sure for everyone who had watched ET (probably more than once) it rings bells very clearly the ONLY words from ET all through the movie "Phone Home".

It probably was a simple journey of a fantasy in the mind of Spielberg, sitting in his rocking chair and punching the words of ET script, as they formed in his Inner Terestrial space. It is still hard to believe that he created a character around an alien and grafted the human element into the ET, as if he had experienced himself during some part of his eternal journey before born as a human.

But for me, those events came down as Truth. I had been spending time at SOCARE, where there was a little ET : Earth Terestrial, who came out with the similar script line, except for it is not Science Fiction, but the Human Conviction to connect to the roots.

It was one of those casual days, as kids were sharing their daily routine with me, and me just a curious listener, probably one of the very few witnesses, to their lives. The word dictation to the bigger kids was going on and the other little ones who want to grow up fast, also want to be part of the dictation exercise. They want to say, "we can spell the words too" on par with other kids here. We all belong to SOCARE., so how does the age matter, it is the same roof anyways. SO in that tussle of words, something caught my attention.

There is this cute little girl, sitting with her school bag and a slate in front of her. She is lost in her own little inventive world. And as my eyes just panned across the room, they decided to stuck on to this little one. Her name is Shwetha, a 4 year old, her smile so serene and peaceful. She always wants to do, the SOCARE handshake(which I will post it here on of these days). She loves to do that everytime I go there along with other kids.

Her smile is the most gentlest I have ever come across. She hardly spoke to me in my last few visits, but whatever little she spoke it was as soft as butter, I can see she has a great talent to be a singer. The voice comes from very deep, from the guts, as if from her soul, Her lips hardly move, and that is the kind of voice that enticed me. Shwetha for me the representation of "Gandharva Gayani" as it is called in Sanskrit/Telugu, the "Angel Singer" from Heavens.

This time, she is a little far from me, but I see her lips slightly moving, I thought she was singing a song, She never sang anything for me till now, I pleaded her many times for a small nursery rhyme atleast, but she is too humble to display her talent, which we call shyness. Many parents think that their kids do not perform in front of strangers, because of shyness, But I feel, they are the most Humble creatures in this world. They have so many wonderful emotions in them, so much talent deep inside, but they rarely make it public, because they are the descendants of God. They are the Angels from heaven. Angels don't have to prove anything to the world. They come for making the lives of humans beautiful.

As her lips were moving gently, my focus got drawn to her hands. The right hand was pressing against her right ear. I thought for a second that she was lost in thoughts, that great philosopher pose we all try to give, when we sit in a group. But then there was something more I noticed in her hands, a green napkin folded very nicely, between her soft little palm and the ear. She seemed very happy and she was actually not singing. I could see the expressions on her face changing constantly, as if she is in a dialogue with some one, some one above all of us, some one whom we all can easily connect.

I was spell bound for a second, I stopped the dictation, the kids around me were trying to intrude my connection with Shwetha, "Uncle, please give us more words". I ignored, rather, my senses were completely involved with this little girl. I could no take my eyes off, she continued her talk, over this little napkin, she was nodding her head, she was telling something, to the person on the other side. She was happy to hear the other person, She seemed delighted with the conversation. For me, the whole world came to a stop, so I asked the kid next to me.
"Manohar, what is she doing?"

"Uncle, she is talking on phone"

"With whom, raa"?
"With her Mom, uncle...She talks to her Mom like this sometimes"

"Oh My God!", I said to myself.

It is a "Phone Home".

The tears came down from the lacrimnal glands, but stopped right there at the brim of the lower eye lid, it could have been a sad moment, but there was some kind of Joy in that pain, there was a victory in that loss, there was a sense of relief in that prick deep within. Instead of seeing the thorn, I started seeing the rose.


The rose smelt better than ever, it sent a fragrance of love from Shwetha, it taught me the "Art of Coping". If nor for Shwetha, I would have been going through all the pains that I have accumulated in my life, That moment everything dropped, all the burdens in me and her became one and have fallen apart. In that moment, it was all about the soul talk, not human talk. Shwetha was communicating with her mother whom she thinks is around somewhere, but the truth is she had connected with the Universal Spirit that connects all of us, the energy that brought us all to this world.

I have seen wireless in my life, and now experienced a phoneless conversation. We humans as we grow up, forget the innate power in us, the angelic energy we all carry within to soother ourselves and a few more.

I left my parents when I was 14 for my higher studies, I remember the agony my parents used to go through to call me from some local telephone exchange. Vikarabad did not have STD lines yet, It is a small town, even now. But parents used to always run to this Exchange to call me in Hyderabad, to a phone number in Karthik's house, opposite to where I used to live, to speak to me for a few moments. Preethi, Karthik's cousin used to run from their house to tell me "Suman, there is a call for you". I used to hug the phone and cry for a few moments. My parents used to convince me that they will see me soon, and that weekend my Dad used to walk in with his little leather airbag with loads of love and dosas made by my Mom.....Yes I was lucky, that I had a Mom who could make Dosas and a Dad who would take the first train and get them to at the same temperature...

At that moment she realized that I was watching her, It was painful for me to realize that I distracted her Conversation With God, but the moment she saw, that tender and beautiful smile in her face was glowing and she threw the napkin towards me, She enjoyed the little chat with her mom and back to the world of fellow humans.

I asked her, "Did u talk to your Mom?", she just gave me a silent smile, and her staring into me continued as she started putting back her books in to her school bag.

I am lost in Shwetha's world, as I was giving dictation, but this time, the right or wrong spelling did not matter to me.

Yes I was spellbound.....