It was an almost perfect Sunday evening. Dinner with Dadba had to be more than ‘purrfect’ in fact. Along the way, I was as always chattering my heart away and my brother had a half amused ,half thoughtful expression; his standard one! We stopped at the customary Mc Dy’s wala corner at Kamla Nagar. On a whim, my Marxist brother felt a desire for a capitalist cup of coffee. So be it!
The whole place was chock-a-bloc; it was a Sunday after all! There were mostly families today, I noticed. Pampered kids with their parents, contently licking ice-cream. A secure universe.
In the midst of my discussion with Dadba on ‘Detha and the oral history of Rajasthan’, I saw a little boy selling balloons to passersby. I had seen him before and like many others brushed him aside with a ‘Nahi chahiye bhaiya’. However, I had never really noticed how incredibly adorable he looked; even in his tattered shorts and dirt-stained face. Ok perhaps! I need to get married!He was wearing a faded red sweater and his face peeped amidst red, green and yellow balloons.
There were couples hand in hand, groups of friends out on a weekend who passed him by. He diligently prodded after everybody ‘Didi,Ek balloon le lo! Bhaiya, ek balloon le lo’ he pleaded. I guess everyone was caught up in their own private worlds to notice much. Suddenly, I saw his face clouding over with tears. He just let them flow. My mask of insularity didn’t help now. I had to go. I walked over to him and asked him ‘ Kya hua beta?’. He just sniffed ‘Didi ek balloon le lo!’ Oh! What wretched luck! All I had that day was a paltry ten bucks,after all why carry money when Dadba was there! I thrust it into his hands and said’ Main bohot badi hoon na, balloons se nahi khel sakti!’ It was a lame joke but he smiled. My heart soared.
I went right back and continued to talk with Dadba. Perhaps the conversation turned a little cynical. Why were there so many destitute children? Which NGO’s would help out? We finished our coffee in contemplation and left. While we left Mc Dy’s, I saw a youngster, dressed in the customary branded sneakers and a rugged jeans munching away on his burger with the little guy. Both were animatedly talking. That’s when I realized…a little sharing goes a long way…. :)
