Once I was
on my way to college listening to some fast happy song on my iPod and feeling
exceedingly happy. As I waited on a red light I looked around (singing in my
head) and I saw an old man sitting on the street. It's not that he was old.
It's that he was very old. It's not that he was thin, he was sickly thin. His
legs resembled two long thin sticks. His hair was all over the place. On this
very cold morning he was wearing two small pieces of clothing, barely
concealing his dignity, forget saving him from the cold. He was frail, tiny and
sidelined. His hands were the thickness of my fingers.
But
interestingly these were not the most noticeable things about him. He was
slowly peeling a banana and his eyes had the simple and easy hunger of a
morning breakfast.
I was transfixed.
The health, the clothing and the cold did not affect me much. But the fact that
he was eating a simple banana had tears in my eyes.
On another
day I was standing in front of a MC Donald’s. I had a big fight with my friend
and we were standing there fighting. Suddenly next to me I noticed a lady
sitting there respectably in her clean red Saree. She had a little girl in her
lap who was chuckling to something her mother had just said, and an older boy
of five running around the both of them.
He was laughing and running around his family
when all of a sudden he saw his 'customer' approach. still giggling he ran to
him and begged for money, still not able to control his laughter over the
little joke he has shared with his mother. The 'customer' then said something
like “chalo chalo age jao" and
shoved the kid aside. The boy still chortling shrugged, and ran back to his
mother and said shook his head. His mother patted his head and gave him a
little kiss and sent him off again. He ran around looking for more people
happily.
