It is 10.30 in the night and we are waiting outside a house. A small boy is accompanying us, as it’s his house we have come to visit at such untimely hours. We wait for 10-15 minutes and his parents arrive. I’m in a hurry to finish my job with them and leave the place. But the lady invites us so warmly, that we cannot deny. We enter their house, which has a few signs of a home, but looks more like a vegetable storage place. It is but obvious, as they are vegetable sellers.
Two small children are lying on the floor there, fast asleep, their clothes all dirty and unwashed. (They are the kid’s siblings, doing very well at school, we come to know later.)The place is also not very clean, all the household lying unkempt. We are offered water which I hardly drink. We are treated very warmly, as if the parents and the kid who have been selling vegetables for years on a nearby road have been quite a close acquaintance.
Now is offered lime sharbat in clean steel glasses. This time I drink it hardly thinking about the hygiene as I’m too engrossed in their story. The story unfolds the life of a very common man and his family striving hard to make both ends meet by selling vegetables. But what touches our hearts is their honesty, hospitality, spirituality, and simplicity. The kid being so mature at that tender age working hard to support his parents makes me introspect.
“hi ghya tumachi purse, taai!” (“Here is your purse, madam!”) the lady says holding my purse, which I had left at her stall a day before, while buying vegetables from her. I have been so eager to get it back till half an hour ago. But now I don’t even find it necessary to open and see whether all my valuables are safe in it. Now, I know that they were in safe hands, which know only how to work hard.
With our hearts filled in with awe for this rare gesture of honesty (the purse contained diamond ear-rings) and hospitality, we leave their place. I was repenting and blaming myself for losing the purse carelessly. But now, I think everything happens for good as you meet life in a new form teaching you its ways.
Two small children are lying on the floor there, fast asleep, their clothes all dirty and unwashed. (They are the kid’s siblings, doing very well at school, we come to know later.)The place is also not very clean, all the household lying unkempt. We are offered water which I hardly drink. We are treated very warmly, as if the parents and the kid who have been selling vegetables for years on a nearby road have been quite a close acquaintance.
Now is offered lime sharbat in clean steel glasses. This time I drink it hardly thinking about the hygiene as I’m too engrossed in their story. The story unfolds the life of a very common man and his family striving hard to make both ends meet by selling vegetables. But what touches our hearts is their honesty, hospitality, spirituality, and simplicity. The kid being so mature at that tender age working hard to support his parents makes me introspect.
“hi ghya tumachi purse, taai!” (“Here is your purse, madam!”) the lady says holding my purse, which I had left at her stall a day before, while buying vegetables from her. I have been so eager to get it back till half an hour ago. But now I don’t even find it necessary to open and see whether all my valuables are safe in it. Now, I know that they were in safe hands, which know only how to work hard.
With our hearts filled in with awe for this rare gesture of honesty (the purse contained diamond ear-rings) and hospitality, we leave their place. I was repenting and blaming myself for losing the purse carelessly. But now, I think everything happens for good as you meet life in a new form teaching you its ways.
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