Last week I went to local saturday market to buy some fresh fruits. It didn't take me long to purchase some mangoes, apples and litchi. But, I was in the mood for a long walk so I marched forward further into the market. As usual it was really crowded. Fruits & vegatable sellers were shouting out to the customers. People were busy striking a good deal. There were clothes, kitchen stuff, toys, junk food and what not.
Amongst all this hustle-bustle I noticed an old man sitting along side a fruit seller on the ground with few stacks of old magazines spread in front of him. He was skinny and old. He wasn't shouting out to customers like others. He was just sitting there motionless in the dim light of his laal tane. I could see some comics lying there in that faint light. As I child I used to read a lot of comics of chacha chaudhary & sabu, super commando dhruv, bankelal and numerous others. This spread of comics brought back the nostalgic memories and I decided to have a look. I started browsing through the entire lot. All this while I felt as if the old man was looking at me praying to god that I should find something of my interest and buy it.
After ten minutes of searching I found five comics of my interest. I asked the old man "paanch ka kitna hua" to which he promptly replied "chalis rupeey". I took out the 50 rupee note and handed it to him. For a moment I could see that he almost got a little worried and said " aapke paas khulle nahin hain kya". He asked his neighbouring fruit seller for change and in return got back a flat cold "nahin" as the answer.
He looked helpless as though he was about to loose a big treasure. He asked me to take another comic as he did'nt have the change. I had already checked out all the comics and I knew browsing again would just be in vain. I told him "baba aap rakh lijeye. Main next time aa ke ek aur comic le jaounga". Instantly, the worried look was gone from his face and he raised the fifty rupee note to touch it on his left eye then right eye,and kept it in his pocket. With a blissful
smile on his face he said "jeetey raho beta".
1 comment:
Really touchy moment ! You recognized how important your seemingly small act mean to that Baba. I also liked the way you told him to keep 10 Rs. without hurting his dignity. According to me, saying "Take the change" is not proper.
It might seem that you helped him. But he also provided you a wonderful opportunity to act in this noble way. The satisfaction which you must have got from this surpasses small contribution which you made.
Well done friend...keep it going...
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