Seeing those 15 colorful gems in that Shiro ceramic bowl, her only problem was which one she should eat first. The yellow one because it’s the only yellow one in the bowl, or the pink one because if she devours that one then there will be five more of those left in the bowl?

To others, it might look like just another chocolate, but to her, the world is in this bowl of fifteen little pressed balls of crunch and sweet. You might think what difference the color makes, all of them taste the same, but for her, it’s the dilemma she needs right now. It’s a problem for her to solve right now because this is one thing that she has control over. And somehow this is the only thing that she has control over.

Now with twelve gems in the bowl, she is bound to think about how all of these gems can’t be as beautiful as the ones which her dad bought that day. When Cadbury decided to change the packaging from  four gems in one packet to  three gems,  she cried for that  fourth ball of happiness. And seeing his little princess cry like that, her father got on his Bajaj scooter to find that  fourth gem with her on the shoulder at two  in the morning. He wandered with her all night to find any store open to cheer her with a new gems packet. It struck her while eating the  twelfth gem that no one will ever be that wonderful to make scooter trips in chilly winter nights for her silly chocolate demands.

Staring now at  seven gems, she wonders  why she is not eating the yellow one. Why does she love  the pink ones more than the single, silent yellow one? Those pink bubbles for her are in abundance like her crushes. More and more people have come into her life. Many memorable connections are there, but the one that is there for all the moments, for all the dilemmas, is with the yellow one, the silent one. The “always there for you” one. The one who guides her through all problems. Her father.

The one who is silently there hoping the best for her, hoping that she will come clear with her lies and tell him about the purple gems she has been stealing quietly from the kitchen, the one who never once let his fear of being a father of a young 24-year-old girl in this crime field city take away her freedom. The one, silently praying that all her dilemmas go away and she can have that packet of infinite gems.

Down to the last four gems, she was reminded of that packet 17 years ago. Maybe the  fourth gem  she never had, the one which has always been there but she never saw it until now is this yellow one. Because it was not in the packet, it was silently hiding somewhere just like someone she knew. Silently being there for her no matter how many pink gems come and go, the yellow one that has silently been there all along. It’s the one and the only man she can lean on no matter how many men come and go. Her first and pure love will always be the yellow one, her dad.

No pink, purple ones can come before her YELLOW ONE.