A Mobile in a Poor’s Pocket – A Short Story on Social Issue
Photo credit: undefined from morguefile.com
‘Chhotuu!’ Ramakant was shouting and running over the rails towards Chhotu’s slum. 14 years old Chhotu came outside hearing his name in such a loud voice. He saw that Ramakant who stayed in a slum beside his was running towards him. Chhotu’s mother also came out when she heard Ramakant shouting. An unknown fear ran down his spine. It seemed if it was not Ramakant but a bad news was running towards them.
Ramakant dragged Chhotu with him. ‘Come along with me and you go inside, Chhotu’s maa’ he said.
Ramakant’s trembling voice and sweating body indicated something undesirable. Chhotu’s mother shouted in a crying voice, ‘What happened bhaiya? Where are you taking my son’?
Ramakant was running back holding Chhotu’s hand and Chhotu’s mother was following on the railway track, while handling her half wrapped saari.
Chhotu’s heart started beating fast to see a crowd of around 40 people. He got frightened and could not understand why thoughts about his father have started striking his head. His father’s face was coming again and again in his thoughts. Somehow his heart realized him that his father was no more, however, brain did not accept that as it believes in facts and evidences. But it is said sometimes your heart is enough to signal you of the coming storm.
His father’s corpse lay between the two rails. His both legs were missing along with a hand. It was in a bad condition but the face was clear, though eyes had come out. Chhotu fell down on the body and screamed. People around also could not stop them from crying to see this. He was clung with the body as a baby does to his father and feels safe from the whole world. People had to move away the body from the track with Chhotu clung with it.
Two hours had passed and it was 3 in the afternoon, but Chhotu was still clung with the body. His sob could be still heard. Chootu’s mother could not bear this trauma and collapsed. Few people dropped her in her slum.
A month had gone after Chhotu’s father’s death but none of Chhotu and his mother could overcome this trauma. Father’s death has burdened small shoulders of Chhotu with responsibilities. He had stopped going to his school. There is nothing bigger than hunger in this world. The only source of money had vanished; therefore he sought some help from Ramakant to feed his mother and himself. Ramakant helped him setting up a shoe polish stall outside the railway station. Somehow he was managing to earn a living for him and his mother. His mother had turned silent after this incident. The doctors said she probably lost her mind.
As usual, Chhotu was sitting outside the railway station waiting for his customers but had none since morning. Then a shining car stopped there and a sweet little young girl came outside. Her father was trying to feed her a delicious cake but she denied. After multiple tries when she did not ate it, her father threw it to a dog roaming there. Chhotu was seeing all this and suddenly he fainted. When he came to his senses, he found himself in the hospital.
After a week, Chhotu had opened his shoe polish shop again. He searched his bread among the roaming people there.
Author’s experience
I was very happy today as I got off the train and landed on my motherland after a long time. I saw a crowd as I came outside the station. When I asked a Rickshaw driver, he told me that government was giving mobile phones to every poor and he showed me the one that he got some 10 minutes ago.
As I went near to the crowd, I saw that some government officials were trying to give a mobile hand set to a 35 year old. He looked down and threw away it. Some said he was mad, suddenly someone in the crowd said he won’t accept anything, not even a 500 rupee note.
He said ‘Sir, he is hungry of a bread, won’t accept anything else. If you give him a piece of bread, he will be the happiest man. The poor need bread, they cannot eat mobiles.’
I was silently watching the whole scene; someone asked in the crowd ‘Who is this mad?’
A voice came ‘Chhotu’.
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