It was a hot afternoon. I was not able to look around clear as the sun was burning hell and was cursing myself for deciding, to go meet my friend that day. She was currently in the city and was away so many years till then. But I should accept that it was a great day with her. We shared all our old memories and was quite nostalgic.
I was waiting for my bus in the stop, where there was no shade as usual. I was just wandering my looks on the road, often with big sighs venting the heat out. Then, I noticed a KID on the right side corner of the road drawing sketches. He would be hardly 13 years old. He was crippled beneath his waist, which I confirmed as he was dragging himself to move to his bag and fetch another pencil to continue his drawing. It was really a pathetic scene. I felt sympathetic, as many other people who passed him also did. They all put him some paisa (currency coins) which nearly filled the blanket on which he was seated bit comfortably, to do his sketches. I thought of moving to the corner of the road to show my generosity like other passerby. But something made me scrutinize him a little more.
The time would have been 1’o clock. I felt, I could have stayed at my friend's house itself, as her mom was compelling me to stay for lunch. I was hungry, which made me think about the boy again. Now I noticed that, the boy was having just water in between, from the old water bottle from his bag. The boy at last finished his sketch and was holding it high with a smile to feel the pride of the beautiful picture he had completed. I could clearly see that sketch, from the 5 feet distance. It was a picture of a poor lady, wearing torn clothes, surrounded by empty vessels and unclean room, but feeding her baby with a broad smile. I was really moved by his talent but then felt, god is always unfair with his creations.
Now he was looking at each of the passerby, but didn’t utter any word of plead. After 10 mins, I was wondering to see if the boy was happy to see his blanket filled with money. But to my surprise, he slowly moved from the blanket, collected all the paisas along with the blanket and dragged himself to the Ganesha idol (Hindu God) under a tree nearby. He slowly put all the coins one by one, in the Hundi(contribution box) kept near the Ganesha. Then again, he dragged himself to his workplace, put the blanket neat and sat on it. He was having a couple of sketches near him, may be his old creations, I thought.
Then a tall dark man, who was crossing by, grabbed my attention as he was walking stylish. He stopped near the boy, took that poor lady's picture in his hand and gave a pleasure look at it. The man said something to him, which was not audible. He patted that kid, whose face was full of smile and eyes verged with tears. That man gave him a 100Rs note and went with that sketch. The boy happily put that money in his small bag. He was looking at that man who was leaving the trace far behind, with full of gratitude; I too had a feel of looking at God, that moment.
Then I understood that this ideal human, even when he is so young, has great respect for the god given talent in him. And even when he was physically challenged, he didn’t have the heart to take the money he got from sympathy. This made me take a move towards the kid to buy one of his master pieces, not to show my generosity but to respect god’s creativity.
