My how adorable she was! She became the pride of the neighborhood. Relatives and friends from afar came to see her. The children would play with her all day. As she grew older she got her own room. Unfortunately however, she never learnt the language very well nor was included much in normal daily life. It was good food and games for her. She had a comfortable bed and all the food she could ever dream of eating and the largest selection of movies! Kashpal only had one T.V. where the whole town would get together in the evening to watch the single broadcast. She had her own huge plasma screen with a huge movie collection. Getting out of the house
created massive social problems as she encountered new and confusing situations every time she went out. School was unthinkable. After creating several faux pas for the family she was not allowed to leave her room. Movies did not distract her. Her days were spent gazing out of the window into the distant mountains.
Weeks became months that became years as she rotted in that room. The family's children grew too old for childish games, the games that were the entirety of her existence, the only thing she knew how to do. The children went on to university, they met people, they played with ideas, they tried new things, they fell in love. She only gazed at the mountains. The parents feeling the emptiness that came with their children going of to college decided to have another child. But there were no more rooms. Mona would have to leave.
She was given away to a foster home. During her stay with the Kumars she had become a sort of legend. The stunningly beautiful Kashpali girl who only relatives and friends of the Kumars could meet was now staying at a simple and public place. People from all over the country came to gaze at her. Buses full of school children were taken on educational trips to meet her so that they became more aware of the world. She knew only the games that she played as a child. The hordes of people would play them with her. They would run around and she would follow. They would do things and she would copy. More buses. More students, more children, more games, more parents. More buses. Her childhood games became her adulthood existence.
Based on the story of the Snow Leopard kept at the wildlife zoo near Lalazar. Snow Leopards are meant to track, hunt and run in the snow. We should not have met and absolutely never on my terms.
Feel free to feel otherwise.
Hassan