That kind act

A turbo charged day was finally coming to its sane end. After a rather well organized second day of YAF which included great performances, a good turnout and even better food it was time to go back to the comfortable interiors of my home and crash on the couch.

Remembering all the mad amount of scurrying around to placate frayed nerves, soothing jangling tempers, wars over food (a quintessential hallmark of the group), i had a smile on my face. A smile of satisfaction, a job well done and amends made especially after a disappointing first day. As i strutted back with a swagger and a smile with carnival of rust providing sweet solace to my tired soul, i spotted him.

An man, aged 50's sitting on the pavement behind the pile of papers of all languages, catering to all types of classes, which he hoped to sell. His henna dyed beard, missing canines, balding grey white hairline concealed by a circular Mohammedan cap and a dirty kurta of a fading colour, all conveyed that life had been harsh on him. No doubt his haggard face did point out to the fact that he was aged much beyond his years.

It was a saturday and the new TOI crest issue was on stands. Having recently acquired a rather discerning interest, i do like to read this special edition regularly. My hand reached for my wallet as i approached him and searched in the corner pockets to eek out the six rupees needed to buy the newspaper. As luck would have it, there was absolutely no small change in the wallet. Grimacing i told him about my inability to buy the newspaper and apologized. He just asked me 'kya hua beta? Crest chahiye, arre le lo, 6 ruapi ki hi toh baat hai.' (What happened son? Want Crest? Just take it, it just a question of six rupees) and like that he simply handed over the paper to me.
I tried to tell him and convince him that ill come and give him the money on monday and would he be here but it was so obvious that he didn't expect any of it and he was absolutely not hoping for anything in return for having done that.

It surprised me to no end to see a man, who hadn't sold so many of newspapers at 9 in the night and was going to suffer heavy losses anyway on his meagre source of income instead of being frustrated and cranky would voluntarily hand over a newspaper to a decked up boy carrying gadgets in his hand with headphones plucked in his ears leading a quintessentially what might be referred to as a good life. It almost made me cringe that level to which people including people very close to me distrust this particular community, ostracize them for a behavior of few black sheep, generalize their habits and blame half the problems of the country on them. If this wasn't bad enough the government had perpetuated a policy of exclusion against them, systematically eroding their representation in the mainstream while a many right wingers spew venom on them. This was the community which recently one of the CM aspirant of saffron party which he incidentally heads in Maharashtra told to go back to Pakistan if they couldn't song vande mataram accusing them of being traitors and anti- nationals.

THe man on the street didn't look at my religion, he didn't even care to which class i belonged to. All he saw was that i needed a newspaper and didn't have the requisite change so he just handed it over to me. Small action, great thought. In that moment of pure gesture, he showed so much what can be done to ease the pain of exclusion. A small act of kindness, a simple healing touch unmindful of 'barriers' which more often than not exist solely in our minds, a basic semblance of trust, maybe all that is needed to erase deep dark memories entrenched across the history and the future of the nation.

With my thoughts about my own life reaffirmed, the path i hope to take, the choices i wish to make, i carried on after uttering a grateful thank you, half embarrassed trying to figure out the right way to respond to such a humbling gesture. Till then it had been a satisfying day, after that it became a truly profound day, a day which actually inspired hope and trust and a smile to warm one's heart. And yes...i will meet him and repay all that is due...to how many people, thats something i need to figure out...