The Alarm

My name is Saksham, I am 8 years old. Even though in your head I may sound like a kid, but I am a grown-up man. Even my Dadi thinks so. Every time when my Mom says that I am too young for something, my Dadi convinces her that I am a grown-up man. Though I do not have that prickly hair on my face like Dad, Dadi says I look handsome. Today I am taking Dadi out for shopping, and have assured Mom that I can take care of both of us, but she doesn't seem to trust me. She still sent Ramu kaka with us. We are out to buy a gift for Dadaji. Since he has a weird habit of asking about time all the time, so I suggested Dadi that we buy a digital wrist watch for him which calls out the time on the press of a button. Dadi thought my idea was brilliant, so she brought me along for suggestions. Dadi made me select the watch and said that if Dadaji doesn't like it, I could keep it. I selected a watch with all the features I liked, it had a call out time feature, alarm, stopwatch and a button to light up the screen in dark. I diligently learnt all the features from shopkeeper uncle, as if I was the one who was getting it.

Dadaji loved the watch, but he never stopped asking about time from Dadi. When I questioned him that why doesn't he use the watch's feature, he said that he likes listening to Dadi's voice. When Dadi left, he stopped asking the time, he never asked for it, even from the watch. The day Dadi left, he just asked me to set up a daily alarm for 8 PM in his watch, which I did. Everyone tells me that Dadi doesn't live with us anymore because she was angry with us. But, I am a grown-up, I know that Dadi isn't alive. What surprises me is that Dadaji behaves like a kid. Every evening after the alarm, he asks me to take him to the balcony. He would watch the sky and tell me that Dadi is there. I tried to explain to him that it was the Pole star which he was pointing to and it was there even before Dadi left. He would laugh at me every time I explained that and would say, you'll find me beside her when I am gone.

I am 12 years old now, wearing the watch which I wanted to wear 4 years ago. The alarm beeped at 8. I stepped into the balcony and can't help but notice another bright star near the Pole star. Maybe it was always there, even before Dadaji left, but I noticed it today.