Place: Right in front of the computer
Time: To sleep
Thinking of the little angel who sprung out of nowhere at the traffic signal today. She was not one of those beggars who believe that with all manner of persuasion they can extract any cash at all. This one girl, I would guess was about 6 or 7 years old but the most beautiful child I could imagine. She gazed at me, wearing a tattered shirt, with the tiny hand holding a bunch of light pens(As she called it !), hoping I would buy one of those and make her day. What was special was not the pen with a small button light on it but the sparkle that was there in her eyes shining brighter than any light.
I thought I was inured to this behavior of kids after years of facing them on every red light. But with this girl, something snapped inside me. I could see that her elbow was scraped and that there was no one to caress her. At first impulse I felt like bringing her to my house but then I know how it works. My roomie would have thought something heavy must have fallen on my head when i was a baby to get me into this condition. Just felt that girl’s eyes pierced me through with questions, questions I had no answer for.
Doesn’t she deserve the same care as I got ? Doesn’t she deserve to eat those chocolates I ate when I was her age? Why did she not ride piggy back on her dad? Why did her mother not check if there was blanket drawn up to her ears at 3 in the winter morning? She was as innocent as anybody else and deserved the same love and care.
The sight of that little girl made me feel very small and inconsequential. Felt like i am not doing all that I can. But the question that needed to be asked was whether anything could be done. She was surely not begging, not waiting for me to drop that fateful coin in the tender hand. She was trading, and had an expression of glee , though it looked like she would soon pass out from sheer hunger and exhaustion. And this sight raised so many uncomfortable questions which are still twirling in my head .
Soon, traffic moved again while I was still staring at the girl. She was still hopeful that i would buy one of those light pens. As I digged my wallet, I had enough change to pick a pen, and just about enough time to wait for her to give me the orange pen. I looked back, and she watched me. This time with a bigger smile and a wave of the hand.
I felt beautiful seeing that smile. What I did, did not deserve my statue to be erected all over the place with pigeons dropping their digested breakfasts over my stony head. It just made my day! With the pen lying beside my pillow to see the time in the night (Its a light pen after all !) , brings sheer joy to my heart as i think of her.
I don’t know where she went, and I can’t imagine her life is anything but daily misery. But she had a spirit I hope still lives.
10 comments:
Manvi u have ur heart in the right place.Being roaming around places for the past year and a half these scenes are pretty common to me.But yes we have to realise we are the more frtunate ones.
Atleast lets thank HIM for that and at the same same time lets do our best to help thosa who are not.
There's an interesting project put in place by Masami Sato, called the One. In his book he talks about the joy of sharing and more importantly being aware of what's needed to assist the lesser fortunate. It is a profound book and explores your perspective further.
The post makes me relate to what keeps going in my head. All of us at some point in time wish to help. Some of us are really lucky by profession. What I mean is there are professions which are service oriented like teaching, medicine etc, which by nature help one to give back to the society. I find it hard as an engineer how would I be able to do that. I feel it is a selfish profession. I might be able to contribute to society in terms of science and technology but not everyday can you hit on something where can make a difference to one's life. It is indeed important for us to be aware and learn how to. All I know is I would wait, when it is my turn wont turn my back. You did a nice job MG.
Manvi, a truly emotional passage..Felt a dejavu' of sorts...Actually I always disliked giving away coins to persuasive beggar kids. I really feel like they are trying to extort me. But once even I fell prey to such emotions looking at one sweet little girl's innocent face and I gave away the only 5 Rupee coin change I had.
Later I found she was not even willing to share it with her sibling:(
Thats again my share of bad experience, but atleast I have seen the happiness of that "wonderful glee".
True enough, sharing joy only doubles it:)
Avik,
You are right that we should just thank HIM for giving us everything and help people in our own small way.
Nirad,
Welcome to the blog :)i am not really aware of that, will try and catch up on that . Thanks
Shreesha,
First off, engineering is no selfish profession. Its a beautiful feeling to be helping people and making a living out of that . But the feeling one gets to help someone out of the way is simply unfathomable, So even though we are not lucky to be in a professional like that , we can still do so much for them. Thanks once again.
Smita,
Welcome to the blog, Thank you so much!
nice inset pic...
gets the whole idea rite thru
beautifully written.
Thanks Anurag & Manu :)
loved it!!!
Thanks Madhu ,
Welcome to the blog :)
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