So many unknown people and faces around us. Each living their own share of life. Some stay forever with us, some just for a short while, and yet we meet some people only for a few minutes out of our entire life. Take a quick read below, maybe you too recollect someone you met someday.
It was two years back when I first saw this old man while I was walking towards the metro station from my home. He was sitting under a tree at the corner of the small path with his wife. Taking a brief look at both of them, I walked past the tree towards the metro station. When I was returning home in the evening, I think I forgot about them owing to the wonderful day I was having. When I started walking towards my home from the metro station, I couldn’t resist but watch the two of them still positioned there. While the old man was lying down on a sheet under the tree, his wife was looking at and observing the passers-by.
I thought they were hungry, so when I reached home, I asked my mother if there is some cooked food we can offer them. My mother quickly packed a few chapatis and some vegetables she had cooked. I took a bottle of water along with me as well.
I went back again to the old man and his wife and handed over the food I got from home to them. I sat down on my knee in the hope to start a conversation. The old man sat quietly looking at the food with some glaze in his eyes.
This silence aggravated as no passers-by came while I sat there with them. I spoke to myself, within the boundaries of my mind, “Why is no one walking past this place now? Where has everyone gone?” This silence made all three of us awkward, but now I think that it was only me who was waiting to start some conversation with the old man and his wife. The silence was broken when suddenly a passer-by walked past three of us giving us a look from the corner of his eyes. I asked the old man from where he had come and if they were lost or looking for something. His wife stopped me abruptly and said they had come from a village in another state in Central India.
She spoke no more after telling me this and there was a sudden spell of silence between the three of us.
I stood up, managed to release a smile and told the two of them about a nearby temple where they can get some food and shelter to escape the scorching heat of the sun. I stood up and started walking towards my home but did not look back.
I had been away from my home for nearly two years. I had even faintly forgotten the old couple. One day while I was going to take the metro, I saw only the old man sleeping on the sheet spread on the ground. His wife was not there. I do not know where she could have gone or what would have happened to her in the past two years, but he was still there, old, still lying under the tree.
People still walk past him and I do not know how many of them stopped by his side and took note of him. I too walked past him, maybe I did not wish to wake him up from his sleep or maybe I did not know what to speak to him.
And since you have reached this last section of the blog, some of you must have recollected a few people you walked past a long time ago or maybe today. We walk past so many people in our life, and we keep walking and walking until we let go of so many of them. Maybe I too did that.
Thanks for Reading!
