-Brian Mendonça
My little son who is in Class 1 has graduated from Pokémon
cards, Beyblades and cars. Fidget spinner is the in thing now. Recently he
tugged at me insistently in the market demanding we visit the toy shop ‘only
one time.’
Apparently the kids in the bus he was travelling in to
school all had one – the fidget spinner—so he didn’t want to be left out. What
was this thing called fidget spinner? I couldn’t even pronounce it right.
Undeterred, he strode firmly into the nearest toy shop across the street.
‘Fidget spinner?’ the sales boy asked us. I looked at him
incredulously. Was there some kind of setting? The smaller the toy the costlier
it got. We were shown a tray of fidget spinners ranging from Rs. 400 to Rs.
600. ‘Please dada, please, please, PLEASE,’ I heard a voice saying. Thankfully
I spied one that was a modest Rs. 150.
My son’s joy knew no bounds. He began spinning it away and
‘preparing it for battle’ as he put it.
This involved giving it a rapid twirl and then nudging it close to any
object in the vicinity like a glass, a bottle or dish.
I have never seen him so eager to go to school. On Monday he
carried his precious spinner with him to the private school bus. ‘Fidget
spinners are banned in school. If anyone is found with one the fine is Rs.
500,’ said one of the school boys who boarded the bus helpfully.
I tried to dissuade Dwayne from taking his precious
possession to school but he said, he would keep it in his bag. And since the
bus picks him up rather early in the morning what harm could there be if he
amused himself with his new found toy?
The moment I got back from work I opened the door and asked
about the fidget spinner. I realized it was no longer his toy alone. I too had
a stake in it.
Dwayne smugly said that a boy in the bus had ‘borrowed’ his
fidget spinner for a day. In return he had traded his toy car with him. I felt
alarm bells ringing in side my head. Was he destined to have it only for such a
short while?
The next day Dwayne reported that the boy had taken back his
car but had not returned his fidget spinner. Queenie promptly called the boy’s
mother and apprised her of the same. Come evening, the entire family of the
father, mother and boy were at our door. The mother apologized profusely for
the behaviour of her son who was in Class 5. The fidget spinner was returned. A
disaster was averted.
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Published in Gomantak Times, Weekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday, 27 August 2017.
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