Raja is an 8 year old boy from a village. His large eyes and broad smile are reflections of the innocence of his soul. A friendly child he is full of stories of his village the lush paddy fields, open skies, the ponds where he dived in for a bath, and most of all, with summer around the corner, he misses the fruit laden mango trees of his village.
Every morning he waits for his chacha (uncle) to come to take him back to the village and every sundown the hope gradually fades from his face as he goes to sleep and perhaps dream of his village.
His chacha had promised him that he would return soon to take him back to his village. But, promises are only words and words, very often, are lies .it was this very same chacha who had dropped him off at this abandoned children's home after his parents died.
His mother died when he was just over a year old due to jaundice. His father died, or rather poisoned himself to death some time back. Reason? He was suffering from fever for a while and lost his appetite and as a result was losing weight and becoming weak as well when this on-and-off fever went on for almost 6 months, the "knowledgeable" villagers, high on the knowledge gained through T.V., came to the conclusion that he was suffering from AIDS and had become a risk to society.
Scared and ashamed, (in spite of having done no wrong), he retreated into a shell. Even his family members began avoiding him. They kept a measured distance from him. Though T.V. had "taught" them to "identify" the symptoms of AIDS, they never learnt or maybe, chose to forget that the disease did not spread from breathing in the same air. Death was a foregone conclusion for him. His very own people had, unwittingly, on basis of their limited "knowledge" passed his death sentence. Unable to take in the humiliation any longer; he had consumed agricultural pesticide and ended his life.
A case of suicide was registered. The body was sent for post-mortem. What emerged was this .he was suffering from untreated malaria!(which of course was detected only after his death)
