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So this is Christmas...

"Did you write your letter to Santa?" She asked her daughter, who was busy making drawings on a piece of paper.
"Umm....not yet ! And I wonder if Santa would be able to fit in what I want through the window rail!"
"What is that?" She asked
"A doll's house", her daughter replied and kept sketching a house where all her dolls can stay. She drew a big house with rooms and furniture and a little garden.
She peeped at the picture and smiled. It reminded her of her own home far away...out of this town and out of the closed neighborhood where the windows opened to another person's house , another person's life . Her own world was so different till she moved in into this town, with it's lack of open spaces. The only green that she saw each morning was the green water of the pool across the road , where young boys jumped off the tall rickety concrete board with an abandon that was long gone from her life.
She took a peek at the drawing now slowly becoming more colorful....the red roof and the green lawn and a gate that opened to a world so different from hers. She looked quizzically at her daughter and wondered what kind of a life she would have...She was wilful and stubborn with a mind of her own. Often at loggerheads as she refused to listen to the diktats of the elders. "A trouble!" She  had heard the relatives whisper. And in many ways she wasn't sure if it was good or bad.
The doll's house came for Christmas, it wasn't the big one like the one in the drawing, but it had a garden and could fit in the doll's bed and chairs and the smile on the daughter's face was one of joy and happiness, of a happy surprise.
Years later, the house was being cleaned, the unused loft was being cleared of the junk that had accumulated over the years. Out tumbled the Doll's House - now discolored, and chipped with the garden frayed and faded. The house remained in the junk to be thrown out - till the cleaner's little daughter spotted it - tinkered with the door and the gate and looked longingly at her mother. The mother nodded a no and made eyes as she did not want to lose this daily wage job.
The lady of the house saw this and smiled....called the little girl and asked, " Do you want this?" The little one nodded. "But the house is broken, what will you do with this?"
"My father is a painter, he repairs houses, he can mend this one too!" She said hopefully.
"Then take it, and buy something for your dolls with this money" The lady gave 200 rupees to the girl and watched with delight how the expression of joy spread on her face...unexpected abandon. And she smiled remembering a Christmas morning so long ago! Joy has no season , and the FM played "So this is Christmas............"

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