An Eye Opener-II

Didi, kuch khaane ke liye hai?(Sister, are there any leftovers?) Large beseeching black eyes on an emaciated face. A dusty contour. Those faces still come back to me like I’d seen them yesterday. Smudged dark spots on their hollow cheeks proved that food was scarce—on most nights. Their ribs protruded out of their skin like the stumps of the trees stand out in the backdrop after a massive forest fire. No slippers on their feet, no clothes on their body except a tiny piece of cloth that covered their waist & part of their legs. There they stood: a band of three very young boys with scratched grimy steel bowls.
She stood there in a gleaming white shirt & black corduroy trousers looking over them and she had never felt worst. The rich did infact did get richer and the poor poorer. She fumbled through her pockets and brought out two 5-rupee coins. With a smile she handed it over to them while saying “Dukaan jaake chocolate ya kuch khareed lena..abhi toh mere paas aur kuch nahi hai”
If you have ever had the fortune of watching the Sun rising as it banishes shadows out of every niche & corner, this was precisely how those boys’ faces metamorphosed as wide grins lite up their faces. It was evident that they had never received any sympathy lèst such benevolence of heart. Off they ran to the local store & picked out the kind they wanted.
She couldn’t help but laugh after them.

And so everytime after that they saw her they salaamed and skipped over to say hello. Never to ask for money or food mind you; but for the acceptance & gratification they felt for the very first time where before they had stones cast at them. They were mocked, ridiculed & made little of. They were just those boys that wandered in a meaningless existence.
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--Incidents like these drastically change how you perceive life: at first I had a hawk eye’s view where I was blissfully unaware. I soared above & was content doing that. I really did not want to swoop down below & come face-to-face with the veracity of things. Now I have a microscopic one. Where the harsher realities come into focus as I turn the fine focus knob. And it creates a sharp image of discontent.