A Toy Giraffe and Happy Kids

 

On my way to the office, there's a stretch of road where many nomadic families live in makeshift tent homes along the roadside. They also run shops, mainly selling “toys”. At first, I found it interesting that they had chosen selling “toys” as their business, but after a while it became clear. They have got a little army of their own kids!

I have never cared to scrutinize them, but I see only a few of the men near their shops/tents, perhaps many go out for other vocations. And the women are not seen too, perhaps busy cooking in the backside of their tents. But the children are always jumping around that whole area.

One fine day, I noticed that a man had bought a soft toy “giraffe” from their shop and was trying to put it on his motorbike to carry it home. The “giraffe” was big: like at least two feet tall! I had never seen a giraffe as a toy, and I could never imagine why someone would buy a “giraffe” for a kid. There are all sorts of other popular animals, like elephants, tigers, lions, deer, dogs; all these are popular in the soft toys category. But the man, who was in his late 60s, had bought a giraffe! I remember imagining that a kid was going to be very happy that day, while I passed by.

Another interesting popular thing they are seen selling is “inflatable kiddie pool”. Made of PVC, these can be inflated, and after being filled with water, small kids can sit or play in it. I never saw any such interesting things in my childhood.

Coming back to those nomads. Sometimes I wonder if our world is going in the right direction or wrong. We have people like MS Dhoni or Abhishek Bachchan who got only one kid each, while they can afford to give fabulous lives to a dozen. And on the other hand, we have these nomads and poor people who got no life of their own and their children play in the dirt whole day, but they keep producing children like the world is going to end tomorrow if they don’t. Our Prime Minister wants to make India a developed country A.S.A.P., and our main opposition party wants to do “wealth redistribution” in society. All the while, these poor families keep producing armies of offsprings every year.

Well, I do not have any problem with these kids. They are always nice, and it is always nice to see kids around. It is what they are going to turn out to be after they grow up, worries me. At some level, I think our world would have been a lovely place if kids were going to only play with toy giraffes or inflatable pools. But at some point, they are going to get old and need livelihood and means to contribute to the society. I don’t know how many roadsides they will be able to keep capturing every year, for their tent-houses and toy shops.

I know that in such moments we need to introspect instead of pointing fingers. But at some point, we are going to end both introspecting and finger pointing, and like everything else, we shall vanish in the thin air. At that point, it will not be about what we thought or did, it will be more about what happened or got done by the collective us, while we were around. In the shadow of these thoughts, I find myself feeling more powerless than I ever have before.

- Rahul

A Cat in the Park

 

Life With Background Music

 

During my teenage, once I had noticed that whenever I had a question in my mind which did not have an answer, after a while I would find the answer randomly somewhere out of the blue. I remember myself rationalizing it by thinking that when a question goes unanswered, our subconscious brain keeps searching for answers, and hence spots one when it comes across it.

Some time back, a thought came to my mind that our life would have been better and more interesting if there was ‘background music’ in it; like it happens in the movies. For example, if we were serious, an appropriate background music would be playing around us. It would help us communicate better, since the recipient would understand the context better due to the background music made for the occasion.

A few days ago, while watching a movie on TV, suddenly a dialogue appeared. A character said, “You know what? There is music in life too! It is just that not everyone can hear it!”

The depth in the dialogue stunned me. What if our world really has background music in it; but the problem is that we can’t hear it? And what if there are people who ‘can’ hear it? For example, someone said something to us, and we understood it only on its face value. But there is another person, let us say very wise and experienced, and that person could not only listen to the person but also the ‘music’; and hence got the context better?

I know this is an imaginary thought, but philosophically, the thought is magnificent.

If everyone really understood everyone else, perhaps there would be lesser conflicts and heartburns. Or maybe if everyone really understood everyone else, there would be anarchy everywhere, because at times it is better if we do not understand things too. Whatever the end results, I won’t mind a little music in life. And an ability to listen to it too.  

- Rahul Tiwary

A Little Homeless Girl

 

On my way to office, there is a portion of road besides which some homeless people live by having made a make-shift tent-house and they sell a host of items (mainly toys) to the passersby. As rains have started, today while I was passing by, I noticed half a dozen kids of around 6-7 years of age making a loud sales pitch and selling “mudguards” for motorcycles. As I ignored them and passed by, suddenly a scene captured my attention.

There was a small girl of about 6-7 who had collected a big dusty blanket on her head and she was shouting in anger. It seemed as if someone from her family had asked her to gather the blanket but had not told her where to keep it; and as she had already gathered the heavy blanket over her head, she was shouting and asking where to keep it, as she did not have the energy to keep it on ground and to pick it up again after figuring it out. This idea that such a homeless poor little girl would also shout in anger at her parents startled me a bit.

It is a whole different topic about why kids shout angrily at their parents; but the poor little girl doing the same thing in a way comforted me that she was having a normal childhood, and all was not lost. Of course, she was able to do it only if her parents had given her the right to do so, meaning she was loved by them and well taken care of. This is hardly a conclusion which could be made merely by going through the scene, but I am convinced that it is what it is.

- Rahul

 

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