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Babolito

By Ramendra Kumar; Illustrations by Shiju George

Mohanty ma'am was teaching the class five students of Arya Wonderland about similes.

"As beautiful as?" she asked, looking at the students.

"The rose, the Taj Mahal, Aishwarya Rai...." There were several shouts.

"And now, as ugly as?" Mohanty ma'am questioned.

There was a pause then a girl said in a loud and clear voice: "As ugly as Sarita."

There were a few giggles, a couple of sniggers and then laughter.

Sarita felt herself burning with shame and pain as all eyes turned towards her, bored into her, making her feel exposed. She hid her face in her hands and wept.

Yes, she was ugly. Her classmates were right. There was no doubt about it. The left side of her face was completely scarred. There was only a slit where her left eye should have been. And what was left of her ear was a tiny morsel of flesh.

Sarita and her mother had been caught in a fire when she was an infant. Her mother had escaped with a burnt hand, while half of poor Sarita's face had been eaten away by the flames.

Sarita was a happy go lucky child who did not believe in blaming fate or moping over her ill luck. But sometimes when her classmates got really mean, the tears would come.

Sarita was very good in studies. Whenever her classmates needed her notes or wanted to have a doubt cleared, they would come to her. She was kind and forgiving and would willingly help them.

But at other times when they did not need her help they avoided her. She longed to have a real friend but she had none.

On the road, in the bus, in the park, wherever she went, people would turn and stare at her. Their faces reflecting many emotions - horror, revulsion, pity but never friendship, affection or even acceptance.

Sarita was very good at drawing and spent most of the evenings with paper, pencil and paints. She always drew things that were ugly or rather, considered ugly - bats, lizards, snails, vultures, toadstools, weeds and everything that was looked at with revulsion or distaste.

That is the reason why, despite her talent, she had never won a prize in any painting or drawing competition. Who would select a picture of a toad or a lizard when there were lovely flowers, exotic birds and beautiful scenery to chose from?

That evening Sarita decided to draw the ugliest creature imaginable. She thought for some time and got started. After three hours she looked with satisfaction at what she had drawn.

It was a strange creature with the body of a lizard, the head of a toad and the wings of a bat. It had two saucer-like eyes which looked in opposite directions and snout like that of a wild boar.

Its body which was dirty brown had scales which were slimy green in colour. It was a magnificently ugly creature.

She named it Babolito - a name derived from the first two alphabets of the animals that had inspired the creation.

That night she stuck the painting on the wall opposite her bed and slept.

Suddenly she woke up with a start. Someone had called her name. She looked at the painting. It was still there but Babolito had disappeared.

She heard a noise and turned around towards the window from where the sound had come. There it was, a looming shadow.

She gasped in surprise. "Babolito…!"

The creature, which was the size of a rhinoceros, put its head through the window and spoke.

"Little one. Are you scared of me because I'm so ugly?" It had a soothing, gentle voice.

"Of course not. Why should I be scared of anything ugly. I myself am so ugly. I was only surprised seeing you alive."

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