Gentle breeze, Cool weather, Cloudy atmosphere and on the roads of the old Town I was moving with "Ferrah" (Our Female Dog).
I was in my favourite shorts enjoying the atmosphere. It was a relief to have such surroundings after bearing severe heat for the whole month of March and April. Those Clouds were not less than a blessing of the Indra.
Did I forgot something to mention? Yes, it's like Cherry on the cake. I had my favourite Butterscotch in my right hand. For me, Heaven was on the earth, right here in this town.
I was not expecting any plot twist here and I didn't wished to experience any. But there we go; in an isolated dark abandoned Corner of a building, I saw some Teenagers fighting over. There was a child, hardly 14 years maybe. He was taking over a bunch of teenagers, who were double in size of what he was.
I found myself in a social dilemma. What I was supposed to do? Should I interfere and stop it? Or maybe I should just ignore it? With such thoughts in my mind, my thought bubble got bursted with barking of Ferrah.
All of a sudden they did stop and started looking at me. While I was still there trying to estimate what my next move could be?
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I was in no mood to get into a mess, but Ferrah left me with no choice. Ferrah, being fearless kept barking on. As they were continuously staring at me, all of a sudden a voice interrupted us. Those were Cops.
"What's going on here?"
"Nothing sir."
"You all, come with me for interrogation."
While they all went with the cops. It was only me left with that boy. Without caring about the scars and bruises he got, he was looking for something. I was curious and there! He found what he was looking for. It was, A BREAD! What?
The piece of bread was lying there in dust. His eyes sparkled and he lifted that piece with joy and started to clean it with a hands and folded it in a nearby paper.
"It's not a good piece of paper. And the Bread isn't good enough to eat either."
"It's for my sister."
I looked at him and his stomach made a growling sound. Now the thing was clear that he was hungry.
"So why were you fighting?"
"It's not me, it's them. I stole this Bread piece and was trying to escape them, but they caught me up here."
"If you're hungry, you should've asked for it. It's not morally good to steal a thing that doesn't belong to us." I tried to explain him.
To which he replied, "This belongs to me. I did their chores like shoes cleaning and lifting their bags for this piece and I've rightfully earned it, but they refused to give it to me. Therefore I snatched what truly was mine."
I looked him in his eyes. To say such bold words, to pick up a fight with such guys alone. He was either brave or was a victim of circumstances.
"Don't have that dirty bread. Throw it. I'll buy you fresh food enough for you and your sister."
"I don't want alms for free." He said.
I was shocked. I never expected such a reply. Human beings, mostly wish to get things with as ease as possible,in return of no work. They go to any extent, when they face Catalogues in their life. But this boy was different.
"Don't worry I'm not giving you anything for free. Just hold my dog for me till my restaurant comes and I'll give you food. Rightfully earned food."
This time he agreed to my offer and we started walking by the road side towards my restaurant.
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As we continued to walk on the road. I asked him about his parents and sister. He told me that they all were poor from the beginning and his parents used to work at a construction site for livelihood. They died after the building collapsed, his parents were working under. After being orphan, his elder sister started working as a cleaning person at a restaurant.
I was listening to him with great interest as the restaurant arrived. I asked him to come in but he refused. He seemed a bit scared.
"Why are you not coming in? We have to take food for you and your sister, right?"
"No, please don't go inside this one. They're all bad. Please."
As he started crying, I tranquillized him and asked him for the reason.
He replied, "my sister worked in this restaurant. After evening, she used to bring me the leftover food to eat. One day, when they realized this, they fired her from her job stating that the act was against the policy of restaurant. She begged them in front of me but no one listened. They used to throw leftover food in the trash. After she lost her job, having no alternative; she started collecting the food thrown in the trash and brought me that food late night. After a couple of weeks, she caught fever and now she is sick. Hence, I am trying to get fresh food for her, so she gets better soon."
I was shocked to listen this incident.
"Hey! Why do they throw the food? Why don't they give the leftover food to us?"
He asked me. I was speechless. Tears rolling down my eyes, I hugged him and said, "not everyone has a golden heart like you do".
It was a sad reality that we were so ignorant towards the resources and food that we never realized the need of others. We never thought that the food we were throwing with ease was so much important for others.
Maybe, we never respected resources because we never faced the Catalogues of life like this boy did.
- The End
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Pratham Shah
