Social Short Story – The Bread
Photo credit: ecerroni from morguefile.com
Bangalore encounters height of traffic at every working day as this IT hub has this common thing to give to every resident here. As I was about to cross the Silk Board Signal at around 9 am ,I saw a 7-8 year old girl in her torn clothes. They almost lost their color and was only showing grey shade due to plethora of dust. She was knocking glasses of some very sophisticated vehicles.
She was not begging but she was trying to sell something, as I could see her hands folded. When she turned I saw she was carrying with her 2-3 dozens of key rings. I was in a public bus on my way for office amid that peak traffic. I was stucked there for last 15 Minutes, and was able to watch all her activity. No one was bothering to buy one; she will approach one car, will be sad for a while, and then approach another car with double her spirit. It was green signal now and I left the bus to see how she sells rings? I was a bit curious that’s why I stayed there. There came a boy 10 year old almost, with his school bag, all groomed up, there was a car waiting for him with probably a driver inside to drop him till school. He opened his bag, took some pages of a note, sat on the ground with the girl and gave a tiff inbox to her. Then he asked “what to sell sister”. She showed him all rings with tears in her eyes “no one bothered to look on it, only 8 Rs per piece. He took a plain paper out of his bag, wrote something and pasted it on wall behind her. Within an hour’s, those 3 dozens ring sold out. I moved closer ,looked at it, what actually drove attention of so many passersby, and I was dumbstruck on the great thought of that little boy,” Dear all educated passersby, will you please help unlocking my future by owning this key ring with a small exchange of 8 rupees. I won’t beg, but will you help me to grow with self –respect, will you welcome me to be a part of your workplace soon. Help me when I sell flowers to blossom your life, help me when I sell some fruits to help you grow. Help me when I try to nurture me, my study as We all are child of nature. Help me to grow, Help me to have a Bread, a bread to survive ,a bread to revive ,a bread for today ,so that I can dare to earn a bread for tomorrow .
The boy at the very young age of 10 had taught me a live example of humanity, he was empathetic that’s why at a very tender age of 10 he was able to realize and recollected his whole energy for a very noble cause” the enlightening of another tender mind who need a little help from all of us to dream a better future. They need to play, then fight over small issues and then to smile. How much are we contributing? A question sparked inside , and remember my friend if I say ,”contribution”, then it’s not only the money that we donate in many of the trusts ,NGO’s but the wholehearted effort that we need to put on a girl like Saloni.
We often saw many such street children selling number of items .We give them a sympathetic look, tell to our companion why Government does not take steps to curb the poverty. We blame everyone other than us and just wash off our hands to our responsibility. We do donate in a number of NGO and avail the tax benefits but what we don’t do is to extend our helping hands to many these children deprived not only of food, education but emotions. They need some time along with money, so that they can live a life which induces in them a moral sense of being a part of our society. This will pave a sense of ownership in them and a self esteem to be motivated always. The little boy in the story at very tender age was able to relate everything he had got from society and hence spread that in return, but are we doing the same or we are way behind.
