At a traffic signal at Chowpatty beach in Bombay, (Mumbai) India, I once spotted a young boy clad in a dirty white vest and khaki shorts. His hair was disheveled and his deep black eyes sparkled with determination. I found him racing from car to car begging for alms. Seeing me stare at him, he smiled and came up to me with anticipation. I asked him his name. “Kisan” he chirped. “What will you be when you grow up?” I inquired. Kisan twitched his nose, scratched his head and replied – “A phillum star“! (film star) backing his declaration with a melodramatic recitation of a dialogue from an old Hindi classic flic – ‘Sholay‘. Amused, I asked why he was begging instead of studying towards his objective. “No job memsaab, no money and mother in hospital“. Apparently he had been forced to leave school to shoulder responsibilities of an ailing mother and two younger siblings. I felt sorry for him and decided to help him. I gave him a ten rupee bill. He cried out in sheer delight. For him, I appeared as a Messiah out of the blue. I told him that I would visit him the next day and help him start with a small time business.
The next day, I got him shoe polish, a mattress, brush, a few rags and a shoe stand. “From now on you are a shoe polishwalla“, I declared. I asked him to earn his living by polishing shoes during the day and attending school at night. Kisan held my feet with gratitude as I prepared to leave feeling like a good Samaritan.
A few weeks later while passing Chowpatty beach again, I curiously looked out for my ‘shoe polish master’. As the taxi pulled up at the traffic light, I was astonished to find Kishan back on the streets asking for alms. I beckoned and expressed great displeasure at his plight. “Memsaab there is more money in begging than in shoe polish business” he said. He waited expectantly for a minute and realized that I was too taken back to respond. Without a second glance I watched him take off for the next car before the lights turned green…Not to miss an opportunity at earning his daily wage.
Sigh! That’s life I guess…
Life Is Like That! 