It’s September again.Again, I see the different facial expressions of the parents taking theirchildren to college.It’s mostly the male parents who perform this duty.Sometimes bothparents come.The highly personalized faces which usually differ from each other in athousandand one ways fade at this moment into each other,and display the same look: fatigue, exhaustion, the timidness and cautiousness of a new comer, and the concernednessand fear that their offspring might be treated unfairly. Such long and exhausting journeysover here! So many complicated and time-consuming procedures! They corrode people’s élan. The gleefulness and dizziness usually found in “eighteen-year-old youngsters who’vemade it” disappear altogether. Close on the heels of their parents, they shuffle from place toplace in the campus. To go through one formality, they have to walk long distances and askmany questions of many people, and their parents have to smile politely all the time. Everywhere they have to line up and to pay. The sun being blazing, they find themselvesperspiring all over. They have to sit by the roadside for a rest and satisfy their thirst by drinkingbottled water whose prices soar because of scarcity. No matter how dignified and classy onemay look on other days, one has to, for the sake of one’s children, humble oneself, put up withinconveniences, and show one’s best smiles to find out what to do. I saw a father carrying ahuge bed-roll. Bent with the heavy burden on his shoulder, he had to strain for a look aheadin order to see the way forward. His son, head hanging low, followed behind with only a smallbag. It won’t be long before his boy will help the girls with their bags. I also saw a father andson coming near hand in hand from the fork of a road. A mere glance told me that they arefrom one of the poor rural areas. Both wore cheap T-shirts and had crew-cuts. Even smaller inbuild, the old man has graying hair and a tan. An arrogant taxi sped towards them and was onthe point of knocking down the oldster.The poor man quickly jumped aside. It was a nearescape. Then, only then, was he separated from his son. When the car shot past, they joinedhands again, continued on their way, each being the other’s support. The sight nearly broughttears to my eyes.
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