Be it a village or a city, life is complex everywhere. Cries, laughter, nobility and savagery- these are ubiquitous. Flabbergasted I was when I saw a very old lady, so old that she could not get older anymore. Skinny to the moon and back. She looked so white as if she was wrapped in a thin foamy flake. I was walking through a narrow lane when my eyes fell on a small door ajar and that old frail figure enwrapped in snow white skin was washing clothes. I ceased and got frozen there. I could never imagine a lady like her washing clothes. A volley of questions thronged my mind. Whose clothes was she washing? They could not be hers. I could see that she was not able to hold the piece of cloth and thump on the floor. She was panting as if she was on a sprint.

I hid my self behind the wall. I could hear the pendulum people made inside the house. Soon my senses worked and I understood the whole scene.The lady sweating and panting out at the door was not a maid but an old weak mother. A mother discarded like a piece of shit. All the summers, winters, springs and autumns she lived, she did nothing but nourishment. But today it seemed that life is more a folly and less a virtue.

Are mothers around not subjected to the same selfish brutality?

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Last evening I had my train from Bokaro Steel City Junction. The train which I boarded at Koderma dropped me on time. In the compartment I befriended a man who was also supposed to get down at Boakro. We left the compartment and asked him about the platform wherein my train for Kolkata would arrive. He helped me with the information I needed but he very humanely suggested me to step out the station and have have tea. Outside the station I browsed various shops. I was also hunting a good hotel to have my diner packed for the night. At a stall which sold litti chokha, I saw a boy in his mid twenty with just one hand. His right hand my eyes failed to find. That man was working with his left hand. Taking the order, preparing and parceling were done alone. I was utterly struck. I went to him with my beaming face and ordered a double egg bread ommlette. I said,”Bhaiya thoda jaldi Karna , MERI train hai Avi”. And in a short while I had my parcel. I cannot imagine how my/our life would have been if we were to work with just one hand. But I saw hope and determination in his eyes. Is he not a hero?