Think About it...

Hi...
It's the weekend and I am in Kolkata, waiting at a bus stop. I am going over to a friends
place. I have an Appy in my hand... While i was busy staring at people here and there and
having my drink, this kid comes up to me. My first reaction, like most of the others, was
something like... "kya hai.. kya chahiye.. ja yaha se... "
Then something happened that has changed me and my life.
The kid said.. "Bhaiya.. thoda sa mujhe bhi do na... zyada nahi thoda sa..." and he had this
sweet request kind of smile... This kid, around 5-6 years of age, doesn't have anything.
My boss has a kid of the same age who might know the meaning of "request".
My heart sank to the very bottom. All i could do was stare at the child... and i kept staring
I came out of it when he started tugging at my trousers. I took him to a shop and bought him
an Appy all for himself. You should have seen the smile on his face... the childishness in
it... it made me smile (i think i had giggled a bit too...)
But then had it been some other day, i guess it wud have ended here. That day i started
thinking about the kid, standing at the bus stop.
How must he have spent his day...??? He must have got up sometime late in the morning (i
didn't want to think about where he might have spent the cold night). Must have jumped around
here and there... when he felt hungry, he must have "Asked" for something from anybody he
could get hold of. He must have met hundreds of people. Some of them must have ignored him,
some might have shouted at him and shoo-ed him away... and some might have had a bit of
sympathy and given something. No one is wrong from his or her point of view. Then after an
uneventfull day he must have gone back to sleep.

Now say, one out of those hunderds of people wud have thought in a way a bit different than
the usual. Instead of ignoring him, or shouting at him, or giving him a coin or so...
say he wud have given him a bit of his time. And in that time he wud have tried to teach him
something, like alphabets, or numbers, or anything that he might have thought wud be usefull
for the child in his future. Tell me guys... wud or wud it not have been a step to a more
beautiful world?

The kid wudn't care if you ignore him or shoo him away. You give him a coin and he'll spend
it and forget about it. This will go on... one day he will realise that the only way he can fill his
stomach is by "asking" from people who are walking down the street-not bothered about anything
but themselves.

I agree that we spend tiring hours at work. Then we come back home and again get into doing
something or the other. But then... if all of us... all of us... spend only 2-3 hours a week
will it cut that deep into our so called time schedules... Will it be that bad if we tried
to make the kid's life a bit better...

I dont believe it. I have seen and i KNOW people who want to make a difference in somebody's
life. And i KNOW that if they can... so can I... and so can everybody...

Think about it...

There's my bus... gotta go now.. bubuye.. c ya later...