GROWING PAINS.

He came home looking flushed, eyes red, a sign that he had cried. He doesn’t cry, but to have cried, he must have been hurt really bad.

“Ma, Azad hit me on my head with a stone.” His lower lip quivered, tears were gleaming n his eyes threatening to fall, yet, he controlled. His friends were with him. He is a teenager now...all growing up. How I wanted to reach out to him, envelope him in my arms and comfort him! His body language was such that he did not want his friends to see me babying him.

I sat him besides me, checked for any injuries or wound. He had a small bump where the stone had hit him. The swelling reduced after applying an ice-pack. The pain which remained was more emotional than physical.

Later, when I was preparing the dinner, he came to me...”Mamma, it is still paining”...I took him in my arms; hugged and kissed him....this is what he needed and what I needed too. He is just 13...going on 18, oh! The pains of growing up!