“She wasn’t just another kid at my mom’s daycare centre in Dubai. She was a family member. She was just 2 months old when her parents first started leaving her with us.
They’d work long hours and hence she practically grew up with us. I already felt like the daycare kids were stealing my share of attention and affection and this baby only topped it.
Not much later, however, the 10 year old me found a sibling in her and she, a family in us. Her parents ran many businesses and often got too caught up with work. Even when they made trips to their hometown, she’d be left with us. A couple of hours at the daycare turned into long days and eventually into weeks. This went on for 7 years.
Ling Yi turned into our ‘Chingu’. She called my mother ‘maa’, my brother ‘dadu’ and me, ‘didi’. We saw all her milestones. Her first walk, her first words, her first day at school!
When she fell sick, my mother would care for her. At family gatherings, she would accompany us as a part of our family. Between the siblings, Chingu was my mom’s favourite!
So much so, that when one fine day Mrs. Gu, her mom, told us that Yi had been relocated to China, my mother collapsed. Her heart broke. Her health began to deteriorate.
If we had any chance to get in touch with Chingu again, it was lost when we moved back to India in 2002. Chingu was rarely spoken about, but always remembered. We often wondered where she could be and in what state. Even at my wedding, my mom mentioned what Chingu would be like. She always asked me to put up a post on social media to find her but I could never get myself to. Even today, I’m scared that she might have no memory of us! But Chingu was a prominent part of our life, just as we were in hers- for 7 long years. And I just want to know if she’s happy and healthy wherever she is, living the life she always wanted to. Today, almost 4 years after my mother’s death, I want to do this as a tribute to her.”
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