Clueless In Cairo

While passing through on my bike, I came across a small kid, probably 3-4 years old. He was just standing there on the ground besides the road, near the small dwellings of his family, and was looking at some vehicle moving on the road. He was wearing only a vest stretched long enough to act as a lower garment too.

A few minutes afterwards, I came across another kid who was also looking at someone, with the same expression. I felt something was strange about both these kids’ expressions and then I realized what it was: both of them looked “clueless”.

I know that both were very small kids, both were boys, and their “clueless” expressions were due to their innocence. At this age, kids’ brains are still in development phase and hence they do not understand what is going around them, hence their faces look so innocent. And sometimes, expressionless, or “clueless” as I have put it.

But there was something which got me interested in their clueless expression. Are we all not ‘clueless’ in this world, in our own ways? Just think of our purpose of life, just think why we are doing what we are doing, towards what end goal? Are we really knowing who we are, what we are doing, and why? If you think about these, you will realize how pointless most of the things we take so seriously in our lives are!

I found the kids and their clueless expression as truly liberating. In a sense, those kids were not really clueless. They “knew” what was necessary to know, at that stage of life. It is we, most of the grownup people, who are clueless, because we know lots of stuff about pointless things and nothing about what really matters.

I am waiting to see until when the memory of those two kids and their clueless, innocent faces lingers in my mind. Until it fades and becomes pointless, in this pointless world.

- Rahul

Note: I have tried to name the title of this piece on the lines of movie titled “Sleepless in Seattle”, just for fun.