It was a dusty evening, and the traffic outside my office building was as usual. I decided to get a quick bite at Wraps & Rolls and get back to work. And hence there I was , trying to cross the road and in the process, dodging in between speeding autos and swiftly moving cars.

I had to wait some time to get my order processed, and took some time to observe the people hsatily boarding share autos, catching buses. One could almost read their worried thoughts from their faces. Another guy had bought a roll before me and as he stood there eating, a beggar girl kept pestering him. My first thoughts were at disgust for all beggars worldwide. But then I noticed that this girl was hardly 7 years old, she was hardly wearing anything, some dirty shorts, had untidy hair which was tied up in a ponytail. After a few minutes I saw her eating that guy's roll, I guess he gave it to her. She sat with her mother, hungrily devouring it.

I have read about poverty in books, written "letters to editor" as part of english exercises about slum dwellers, "garibi hatao" of the Congress, but never thought about it deeply till this moment. I saw this young working girl, beautiful long hair, fair skin, a neat patiala salwar and fitting kurta, and tried to see this through that little girl's eyes. And then, wondered if this girl would even dare to dream of owning such simple pleasures that we have without much effort.

As I quickly tried to get back my composure and cross that road of hurdles to get back to work, I wondered if it is fate, luck, or "karma" that I am where I am and the little girl is where she is.



I tried searching her the next day, dint find her, but saw her mother with some other kid. By then, the horror had set in and I dint feel much for the other kid as I had for this girl.