THE CHOCOLATE I NEVER TASTED

Some dreams are not forgotten because they were big but because they were too small to ask for.

There was a time in my childhood when I thought Kinder Joy was a magical thing.

Not just a chocolate. Not just a toy.

It was a dream wrapped in a shiny egg.

Back then, ₹40 wasn’t a small price.

It was a boundary between “want” and “shouldn’t ask.”

I knew my parents were already giving their all.

I knew I couldn’t, shouldn’t make it harder.

So I never asked.

I just watched.

Years have passed.

I now live in a city. I walk past shelves filled with Kinder Joys in AC supermarkets.

I can buy one. I can buy a dozen.

But I don’t.

Because I’ve lost interest or maybe… because that interest belonged to a little boy, who once stood outside a shop with hope in his eyes.

People may laugh when I tell them I’ve never tasted Kinder Joy.

Yes.

To them, it was just chocolate.

To me, it was a luxury. A wish I buried quietly.

And that’s the truth about life, What’s small for one is sometimes everything to another.

I don’t think I’ll ever taste it now.

Not out of ego. Not out of pride.

But because that part of me… has moved on.

And in a way, holding onto that untasted chocolate is holding onto a piece of who I was.

We all carry small, silent dreams.

Not for the world to see.

But for the child in us who learned to walk without asking.

(P.S: I still haven’t tasted it. And maybe, I never will.)