complete story.... That moment of solitude Shivaya Naham Om…… The scorching sun made me sweat. I had evening college in Lajpat Nagar. College was not so fun but the journey from home to college and back was indeed awesome. There were lots of troubles in the college such as no drinking water, least clean toilets, hot humid classes, fake people and most importantly the stalkers. I cursed myself for not having studied well in my school days. But then the journey from home to college made me aware about certain class of people who actually “live” life. I used to take an auto from home to college and back. Being a daughter of a successful upper middle class business man I could afford it. Given the parking problems, my rash driving and traffic I wasn’t allowed a car for commuting. I never persuaded on it, I liked auto ride. Now I recall this day when college elections were around. The street from auto stand to college gate was covered with dirtied white papers with something written on them with blue and red ink. Both sides of the street were parked with expensive imported cars. The rear windshield of the every car advertised some candidate of election. Muscular men with hairs spiked like thorns, skinny jeans, and all kinds of garish t-shirts and accessories stood beside them smoking. The moment I reached college gate strange people stretched to shake hands and pleaded to vote for their candidates. They gave me various -visiting card-sized cards which had ballet number, name of the candidate and post he/she is standing for etc. I felt like a celebrity being mobbed .Apparently I had never seen these guys in the campus before nor would I see them after elections. As I moved inside the college after being mobbed, I could see these dirtied white papers all over inside the campus. Observing them I discovered that these papers were brochures of the candidates which were being squandered for nothing but show of power and richness. No one took any heed of these brochures and a useful resource like paper was being wasted. I mean children in our rural villages are forced to use black paper made of trash. What good this election as well as such education did to the society is still oblivious to my silly and unimportant intelligence. After attending a few classes I had an extreme urge to smoke. I collected my belongings and skipped the gossip buzzes. I needed a moment of solitude. I walked to the market bought my smoke and lit it up. My eyesight couldn’t help but fall on a narrow street nearby. I had always seen women and small children carrying mobile and refine oil gallons full of water on that street. Being a novice to discovering new places in the capital of India, my own city, led a curious stride towards that street. I really needed to know what made these women and children to carry water in such a way being in an ultramodern city like Delhi. I followed a lady who had two empty gallons in her hand and a Ghoonghat on her head. She was in a hurry. I had only seen my mother hurry in such a way only when she was missing her favorite television soap. Swiftly but in a tender walk the lady walked the streets which were emerging to be less cleaner and narrower with every stride. Now after witnessing a Gurudwara and a few turns to left and right, I was amazed with the heart throbbing sight. It was like I had just penetrated through a transparent magical wall and entered a new world. A world which was extremely very different from mine .A world whose existence had been a mystery to me all my life. A world from which I was protected………..a world of ENDURANCES……… I could see all kinds of women-plump, scraggy, chattering, quiet, young, mid aged, old, older, bathed, unbathed, gossiping, non-gossiping, mobile owners and non-mobile owner etc. They sat around in a circle, sweating. They had a hope, a strong hope for something unknown, something important. All the time they were silent but after a moment or two you could witness a quarrel. A quarrel to get more near to a rod which lay between the circle .They were waiting for water from that rod or pipe…they hoped and endured too long in that heat for a necessity, a right which should have been made available to them without all this struggle…they waited for their share of WATER!! They sometimes pushed each other and a commotion followed by a smooth self-trained flow of abuses. Also there were many children of all ages roaming idly in dirty clothes. Smiling, laughing wildly sitting on edges of walls. Life was exhausting here. You had to compromise with your decency for a gallon of water. Did they deserve this endurance, this wait, this struggle?? I could never reason why, for a necessity of existence of human life they had to face this atrocious struggle. Why these citizens of capital city of world’s fastest developing nation were left to such atrophy? The irony existed not in the pathetic conditions of people, it existed how water was unavailable and every house in that slum had disc of dth connection, the disc of all their fantasy and one sided communication to the world unknown. Every roof of every house of this slum had an antenna disc installed of various dth companies. The endless hunger for expansion of market and greed for more profit motivated these companies to home deliver their product to these slums but there exists not a particle of humanity in anyone to provide them proper Water. Life ain’t no illusion, the meaning we interpret, the purpose we frame all our lives surely is. Profit and expansion are nothing but illusion I insinuated. This slum was the backyard of a huge, clean and marble floored Gurudwara. A private hospital with sophisticated machinery was just few meters away to the right. All kinds of imported cars were parked outside the hospital in front of a wall which had “no parking” painted on it in huge font. A colony of middle class people was few meters to the left .This fifty meters of street demonstrated all class and kinds of people. All luxuries, comforts and necessities could be witnessed .All, successful, struggling and failed people could be seen. I could not wonder how the road in front of the hospital was clean and crowded with imported cars but the road in front of the slum was spotted with ditches full of filth and mobbed with snorting pigs. While I was hypocritically observing, I saw some children walking towards me. The child at the front wore a dirty white shirt and blue trousers. A bag hung loosely on his shoulders. His nose was overflowing, his hairs all messed up, his eyes glittering and face owned an innocent smile. His smile seemed to be deceiving me. It was an attraction. A sudden urge of curiosity veiled my mind as if gulping me into something strange. The moment I was on the verge of concluding that he was a school student, I realized that he had a limping walk. I looked down at his feet he was wearing no shoes. He wore worn out slippers which could have been blue. His ankles were twisted. He walked merrily smiling. Maybe that’s how we all feel when school gets over and we are headed to home I imagined. While I was turning to look at the “sulabh sauchalay’s” wall, which was beside the slum and which released stench of fresh piss all over the place. The boy with limping walk fell on the road. His twisted ankle landed on the slope of a ditch which was in front of the slum. His shirt was wet with some filth that was in that ditch. I was scared but this sight was humorous for many and they burst out in a horribly loud laughter. The boys smile had vanished .A look of embarrassment casted on his face .The women were all looking at him with sympathy, some even got up to help him . There was a noise of some aeroplane passing over the slum. The child at once looked above, smiled and got up slowly and ran in his limps to follow the plane. Of course he was slow and was left behind. He opened his bag took out some paper folded it to make it a plane and threw it in the direction of the real plane. His paper plane fell near me. He walked in his limps smilingly in his mysterious smile and it felt that he was happier than ever before. As he reached near me I picked his plane up and stretched my hand to offer it to him. He said nothing and walked away. I looked at the plane unfolded it. It was dirtied white paper and had something written on it in blue and red ink. It was the same paper which was scattered on the road at my college gate. I smiled and walked away.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 12:02:03 +0000
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