And God Created Them........

The street lights were still burning as I reached the park and it was 9 O’ clock in the morning. Perhaps, the authorities were celebrating. The park was deserted. The usual health conscious buffs must have had their aerobics earlier. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds and at last it came out. The cool breeze was fanning the golden rays.

With my hands moving vigourously backwards and front wards, I walked to be friendlier with my heart, counting the number of rounds of walking I had completed. The watchman’s room on the northwest corner was very conspicuous with smoke emanating from inside. His wife was sitting at the entrance with her baby clung to her breasts, infusing life to her child from her dried up body. She had a sad and blank look, her tired looking eyes closing at times as if she were sleeping. Her son, half naked with torn knickers, was playing with a top. His sister around five years old, with big and beautiful brown eyes, looked straight into my eyes with a smile. She was wiping her nose with her bare hands.

I walked to the starting point and deposited myself on a concrete bench and started to do my post walk exercises with my feet, neck and hands. I must have looked very funny at my postures. Suddenly, I felt a twinge in my heart and a choke at my throat and my tear glands squeezed out a few drops of tears into my old but powerful eyes. I asked myself, “will the lights of Diwali burn in that tiny house, will it be a Happy Diwali for them?”

The little girl’s eyes and her smile will surely be haunting me tonight.