~ A Happy Multitasker...~

They both were sitting in their natural calmness watching the roadside traffic passing by. The Gent was smoking his “Biddee” (a village smoke as we call it in India, though it is a cult in itself for habitual smokers!), that his wife shouted in her raw vernacular tone – none of it was able to be understood by me or my pal who I had accompanied to have a taste of ‘roasted Corn’ as the aura demanded so.

He came back running whilst h crossed the road in no time, seeing in me and my friend a prospective customer, quickly he asked me “ Kitni Bhunoo” (How many should I roast?), in the same parlance I revert “Dou” (2 )! And he was quick on it.

As he was doing his work, an unknown visitor approached him, a girl all in her teens and happily asking “Papa, mere liye bhi ek!” 😊 …(Father, one for me too!),. The next step was sure to qualify him to be a doting father, he immediately scanned his sack of maize and effortlessly selected the best amongst the lot – I jokingly said” You could have roasted this one for us!”, he laughed and reverted “ This was specially saved for my daughter.”

This tinge of love was all he could give to his daughter as he sat on the footpath and tried for a decent earning. I further enquired about his daughter’s education – “Sulekha, studies in class 8^th in a nearby government school. She plays with her new found friends in neighborhood park in the evening. In the morning, I change my profession to be a Car washer, in the afternoon a rickshaw puller and this time as I cannot see much, I change track and be a roadside seasonal vendor – now it is maze, after some days when a trace of winter sets in , I will have a cart of winter specialties as roasted pop-corn and groundnuts.”

As he game me my buy and was paying him for his sell, I asked him where the family was from – he said was born in Delhi when his parents had migrated from Bengal. “My wife is originally from UP and we met here in Delhi” – no wonder the camaraderie between both him and his wife was visible. As a family powerhouse, she was all in support for her husband and was busy helping him in his makeshift pavement shop.

As I understood, they are a happy lot with not much demands from life – the smile on the faces is a testimony to throw back at life what it has offered them – they are certainly from the downtrodden strata of society BUT happy – an oxymoron now days. We see such people around our vicinity and on carefully observing them, we can surely take life lessons for us to tread a path of joyfulness in life and respect what life has to offer us…. In theory this looks good, but start to lookout for such people around you who live in the practicality of such thoughts…It Is tough to exemplify but not impossible…