Reaching Out


She wore tattered clothes. Her innocent face was nearly lost in the mud covering it. But that didn't matter. When the ravenous child was handed a plate full of food, hers was the brightest smile I had seen. But behind that bright smile, is a grievous story. She is perhaps, an unfortunate child, whose poverty stricken family cannot afford to feed her three square meals let alone send her to school. This is not the story of one little girl. It is the appalling story an entire nation. It is 
my story and yours too.


From the narrow temple streets, the busy traffic to the buzzing markets, they are everywhere. Their little, precociously rough palms stretch out to any stranger who seems to have some money in his pocket and a small heart in his body. Regrettably, many have the money but few have the heart. Speaking of one such stranger, a man hurled a coin onto the ground. He yelled, "Ei" at a street child and pointed at the coin on the ground. I watched, mutely. I wished the child wouldn't pick the coin up. But how would an ignorant kid know self esteem? How would a deprived kid know humanity? All that he may have cared about was money to buy some food for dinner. I wished to tell the child if he would leave the coin on the ground, I would hand him more money. However, I could not gather the courage. The child took the coin from the ground and hopped away. I wonder who sinned more: the haughty man or the silent watcher?
In another instance, I was waiting outside a store. A small, shabbily dressed girl loitered around too. I held a toy - a plastic flower with oscillating leaves - in my hands. It was an inexpensive amusement I had bought myself. The girl stared at it. I smiled and so did she. I saw the delight in her eyes. After I left, I wished I had at least let her hold the toy. I had wished too late.
It did not take me long to realize that this story is as much about the mum watchers as the deprived and the offended. I now believe that instead of pitying the poor, we must pity ourselves. We need to break the glass walls of taciturnity. To realize our dreams of a peaceful world where everyone shall be treated with dignity and everyone shall have access to the bounty of nature, we must free ourselves from this reticence. We have to seek enough courage to do what is right. After all, how unworthy is a voice that does not speak for the voiceless! How timid is the heart that fears to reach out to the world!

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