There is this woman in her advanced years...one I see everyday without fail. Sometimes she is dressed up in a muddy salwar-kurta with a bright red bandana with Jai Mata Di written over it. And at other times she sports a beige colored trouser with varying colored shirts. But the bandana never leaves her forehead, be it winters, sweltering hot summers or rains pouring like cats and dogs.
When I first saw her she was lying down on the side rail of a small bridge, built over the canal flowing in our city .At first glance I thought she was probably a village woman, who being tired had decided to take a little rest. Lying down in open view , on a busy road had seemed improbable even for a village woman though. It was when I saw her the next day again, day after that, and everyday repeatedly in the same clothes at the same spot that I realised that she was not of sound mental order. It was then that I took notice of her baggage which was a dirty ,torn bag and a potli tied on a stick which she carried on her shoulder. She had nothing but torn pieces of polybags, shreds of clothes and other such castaway items tucked away in her bag as if that was the most precious treasure in the world.
Then I started seeing her roaming around the city.It was as if she had decided to be present in or near the same place where I had to go. I saw her roaming in the market with her precious treasure carried safely on her shoulder. She was present outside the multiplex ,where I went to enjoy a good movie, sitting on the boundary wall and combing her hair looking all the while in a small mirror kept in front of her and oblivious to world watching her with interest.. She has now become a fixed presence in all my outings now, so much so that I actually look around to see where she is standing and what she is dioing.
There is however, one thing that is remarkable about her.Wherever she goes , she goes with a smile permanently plastered over her face.It is as if she is the happiest soul on the earth with not a care in the world. Penniless, I have never seen her begging on the street. Sometimes I wonder how does she manage her meals( a human's got to eat to live after all!!) or her daily needs depending on how many she has.
And that makes me wonder if there are genuinely kind souls who instead of shooing her away , feed her and provide her with whatever she needs. I have recently started experiencing guilt pangs whenever I see her, with her trademark smile and lost in her own world demeanour. I who claim to be grief stricken on seeing someone suffering for no fault of theirs, have actually just passed by her with no qualms at all or even a thought about trying to improve life and living conditions for her.
She is one person who has managed to show me that I am not yet ready for all the hoo-ha I make over being a socially responsible citizen. If only I could show enough courage and will to help her in taking her home,ie, if she has lost her way home, or in case she has been turned out from her home, take her to care home meant for such 'divyangs'. Alas, I lack all that courage and will and am a long way away from taking such initiatives for social betterment , or in this case, the betterment of this mad woman.
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