- A Late night drive - A drive at night around my city can be quite an eye opener. I pass by a chawl and I notice the Diwali lights. Every year, I marvel at how this particular chawl manages to be united. You see, each house has only one lantern on their balcony, the same kind, either a star, or a Chinese lantern. There are no other decorations on individual windows and thats how, in their uniformity, they shine much brighter than the windows of the skyscraper opposite them. The skyscraper, you see, is lit up differently and each house is trying to outdo the other. The firecrackers go off at both ends of the highway but one set bursts in unison and the other, well, its about who is the loudest. I move ahead and the second scene I notice is of a small family which stays in a 4 by 6 house, which by daylight is actually a shop for ironing clothes. The father lies behind on a cot; he is probably bed ridden. I see the mother and daughter tirelessly working on their respective flat beds, ironing the whole day and late into the night. At night that room turns into their home and the iron board into their beds. But the persistence with which the mother and daughter work leaves me thankful and grateful for the comforts of my life. The heat of the ‘bed’ probably provides a relief to their tired bones and their tired feet. As I take a turn towards my house, I notice a young man of around 30-35 and his old mother. They are sitting on one of the benches at around 10:30 in the night, noticing the cars passing by. The boy has a disability which I am not able to ascertain exactly, but I can see the worry on the mother’s face. Who will look after her son after she is gone? Who is going to sit with him on this bench? Will he be able to adjust to a home for the disabled? All these people have their own struggles; the poor / rich struggle to enjoy their festivals in their own way. The mother and daughter in the ironing shop accept their life, but work towards improving it. And the old mother prays for a kind helper for her son to keep her mind at ease. Observing the suffering of others helps us to be better human beings; it helps us to appreciate the small celebrations. Life is tough. No one said it was going to be easy. But no one said it was going to remain tough all the time as well. Take a walk in your city as well but this time, see what others dont see and feel what is under the surface. ~ K
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 06:50:19 +0000
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