Social Short Story – Shattered Drops
Photo credit: hurley_gurlie182 from morguefile.com
It’s twilight a beggar is sitting beside a bus stop. He has a bag in his hand and he is looking helter skelter. It seems that he is waiting for the rightful owner of the bag to return it. After sometime we also see few youngsters awaiting somebody. They are waiting for a friend and are planning to have a New Year bash on that New Year eve.
The beggar makes sure that its dark or night has fallen and that nobody is watching him, he slowly opens the bag. He puts his hand in it and takes out the things inside. He sees that there are bundles of notes in it. Immediately he puts it in and closes the bag. Accidentally one of the boys also sees the notes. And they started questioning him as he loot this bag. One of the boys snatches the bag from the beggar by giving him a kick, the poor man tries to explain through gestures but no one bothers as he was dumb and so only sounds are heard as a defense and no clear words come out. The boys speed off in a taxi with their loot!!!!
We see the boys fighting to divide the money. The boy who saw the beggar and the one who pushed the beggar each say that they want 80%of the share as they feel that each of their roles in manhandling and seeing was important to co-own the money. Finally the third guy gives them an important advice, “It isn’t any hard earned money, so at least for the sake of the money, let’s stick together and divide it equally and enjoy the New Year.” Yes it was a New Year eve. Here begins their fun and frolic filled lifestyle.
On a twilight we see a young man standing in the bus stop for the bus. He seems to be returning from his office as he has a laptop bag in his hand. The youngster seems to be in his early thirties. There is also another couple waiting in the bus stop. They are in their own world. They aren’t bothered about the things around them. Just then a tired old man approaches the young man and asks him for his lost bag.
The old man says, “Did you see my bag? It is my life if you have seen please give it to me. It’s my life…….”
the young man also looks around for the bag and says, “Uncle, do you remember where you kept it???”
When the Young man says no we can see sorrow clouding his face. He also asks the couples for the bag. They also confirm in the negative. A woman is seen walking towards the bus stop. Just then a car screeches in and two men come out and takes the old man in the taxi, as they pass by one of them says, “He had lost his bag 5yrs ago and still he is searching for it.” Only then do we get a hint that this old man is mentally deranged.
We (young man) feel pity. Tired of waiting for the bus the couple leave in a taxi. It seems that the woman was trying to hide herself from the people who took the old man. Just then the middle aged woman is seen wiping her tears with the end of her saree and sits on one end of the bench. We see the young man trying to talk to her. He says, “If you think it’s too late I can leave you. Don’t worry.”
He also tells her to call somebody from home so that she would feel safer. To make her feel at ease he asks her about her whereabouts. He tells her that her face seemed very familiar. This is when the lady looks at him. After a momentary pause it seems as though she wanted to talk to him. She starts telling him her story. She asks the youngster his name. He says Shekhar. To his shock the lady tells him that the old man whom they just saw is her husband!!She says years back her hubby was returning back from the bank taking the money required for his daughter’s wedding. On the way back he lost his bag that contained the money and it was in this bus stop that he had lost it. It was a new year’s eve. There were only two weeks to go for the wedding. This traumatized him so much that he slowly lost everything. That is when she took up the responsibility of the family and so worked as a housemaid in a house which they knew.
After sometime the man in the house shed his good character and showed his real intentions. She said that she was forced to give in as the responsibility of the house was on her shoulder, she had to marry off her daughter. Slowly she became bad and ruthless. She was tagged a bad woman. She was gifted with aids. She decided to share it with everyone. So all those who approached her also left with a return gift. She said that finally one day a young man came to her. He was drunk. He was her brother’s age. When he was about to leave he gave her handful of money. She said that people came to her in search of ‘temporary pleasure.’ some even openly tagged me a “prostitute.” But he called me “chechi.”
It was his first time. When all the others threw pittance after using me, this boy showed some respect. In my profession faces are not important but I can’t forget his face and his salutation, “chechi” with tears welled up in her eyes and a heavy heart she wounded up her story with the shocking statement “my last customer whose face I can’t forget is YOU!!!!!!”
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