One meal is what I need…

The signals are abound by beggars and vendors and it is now such commonplace that nobody now pays heed to them I think. I was on my way back home from office. The traffic light had just turned red and there was already a long queue of vehicles that could not make the green light. So it was more or less known that the bus may not make the next green light either. We had just started from office, the bus, by virtue of being parked not in shade had heated up and most of us were still cursing the heat around. I just happened to look out and what I saw moved me to say the least.

There was this lady, a youngish girl rather who was with her child, sitting comfortably(?) on the road divider. The child (I doubt if he was even 8-10 months old) was sitting across his mother and looking at her expectantly. Suddenly I noticed that she had this foil takeaway package of food. There was no way of knowing if this food was fresh or not –probably something given to her as charity or somebody’s leftovers! She went ahead to pick up a morsel to feed her child. The child gestured that he would eat. He picked up a small morsel of food, put it in his mouth. His face lit up and he moved his head in a manner to convey his appreciation of food – something he really liked the taste of. At this, tears welled up in his mothers eyes and her expressions brightened. She could not contain the happiness of having fed her child for that day at least. She looked up to see if anybody was watching and I turned around lest she feel embarrassed.
I will never forget one of the happiest smiles I saw…