A snippet of life from a bus

To attend university, I had to commute across Bengaluru every day of the week. I would take a bus that took me through the heart of Bengaluru - the City Market and the Majestic bus stand areas. Traffic in these areas were thick and the movement of vehicles was very slow. It was here that I got to see the ebb and flow of life through the dirty windows of a BMTC public bus. One such snippet of life has remained etched in my memory.

The flyover that runs through the city market area provides much needed shelter to the poor, homeless and migrant population of the city. Here people live in makeshift shelters made out plastic and other cheap construction materials. It was in front of one such shelter that I saw this scene. A young child, a barely five or six years old boy is standing in front of his hut. He is staring intently at an older man, probably his father approaching him. The father is possibly a daily labourer from his looks. And as he approaches, the child gets very excited and runs towards him. They shortly hug, and exchange a few words. The man reaches into his bag, takes off a small pair of brand new slippers and places them in front of the kid. The little boy, instead of turning the slippers towards him, runs all the way around them to put them on. His joy is uncontained and now, wearing his new slippers he turns to hug his father again.

My bus moved on and as I sat there in the noisy, dusty, hot and crowded vehicle, I found myself smiling. That little kid walking all the way around to put on what was probably his first pair of footwear gave me a lot of joy. It reminds me of a line from one of my favourite poems Desiderata by Max Ehrmann,

Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

tags: #life