Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Girl................uninterrupted...................

The other day, driving down the road, we stopped at a traffic signal that’s in front of cyber towers in hitech city…..for those 45 seconds that we stopped there, I saw so many stories…..it seemed like a family to me….or maybe they were united in their purpose…they all seemed to watch out for one another….an old man begging….a group of young children…some of them as young as 4 going around the vehicles with rags….wiping them and asking for a few coins….balloon sellers, ear buds, toy motorbikes…..amidst all of them was this little girl…quite a sight she was, cherubic face, matted hair bleached by being in the sun so long…..something she wore that I couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be or look like….it didn’t even reach her knees…..she was dirty enough for you to want to dunk her into a tub of hot soapy water and go at her with a brush…she was skipping along and asking for money…darting between the cars….she was shooed away by a few, got a few coins…she sort of knew that the lights would change….cos she started skipping towards her refuge till the next change of lights….then someone said…look at her, she happily laughing and begging @#$%^……to which the reply was….its sad that she has to do this at this age….that she is able to do it happily, is her greatness……..it hit me hard….where it hurt badly….the lights changed, the car went into first gear…and we moved on………..

2 comments:

FH said...

Hi, you are not THAT AR , are you?:D

When I visit India, I always buy a loaf of bread for those srteet kids rather than giving them money. It is a sad situation,India doesn't become progressive until she takes care her poor!:(

Parvathi Sivaraman said...

Hey Arundati,
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment too!!Your blog is interesting and I see that we have similar interests.
Congratulations on quitting your job...I know it must take quite some guts to try being out of a full-time job esp. if you've been at it a while!!
I'm on the other side of the spectrum...hunting for a job!!
Anyway,let's keep blogging and getting to know more of each other through our blogs!!
Cheers!!