THEIR MORNING

 Short Story 

Their Morning

My younger brother is working with a private company in Delhi and stays with his family there and often visit to home at Jammu when he is free.  He usually comes through train as it is convenient to board the train in the evening in the weekend at reach home early in the morning next day.

That day also he had plan to come home alongwith his wife and daughter. It was January part of the year and cold was very severe that night and I was thinking that it would be very difficult for me to go to railway station early in the morning in such a cold day though I had to go by car. I set alarm on my phone for 6:00 a.m. in the morning so that I could reach station after freshen up at 7:00 a.m; the scheduled time of the train to reach station.

The alarm rang at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and it was very cold and foggy out there and moreover it’s very difficult to come out of cozy quilts in such chilling weather. I lazily snoozed the alarm for 10 minutes for two times and get inside the cozy quilt every time and my wife from inside the quilt kept telling me to get up or else I will be late to reach the station.

After lots of efforts I made my mind and get out of bed at 6:20 a.m. and hurriedly freshened up put on my shoes, cap, jacket etc. started the car. Even the steering wheel was also cold and I turned on the heater of the vehicle and moved towards my destination.

At reach at the Railway Station at around 7:00 a.m. and made a call to my brother to know his whereabouts and as always the train was late. I usually prefer to park my vehicle outside the Railway Station and my brother also knows about the place. As always, I park the vehicle at same place, stayed inside and started listening music as it was very cold and foggy out there.

At roadside, there was a large dumping area for garbage nearby where there was very bad and unbearable smell. While listening to music I accidently looked towards the dumping area and to my shock I noticed three kids of 10-12 years age group roaming there. They were putting on shabby clothes with big plastic bags on their backs.

I swiftly come out of my vehicle walked towards them. They were collecting broken plastic material, metallic containers, glass bottles etc. from the dumping area and putting them into their bags on their backs with full swing with no sign of winter, cold etc. I go nearly them and casually asked them, ‘BETA ITNI SUBAH SUBAH APKO THAND NAHI LAGTI KYA’ and the reply given to by one among them was like this may be, ‘BABU JI THAND HUMEIN NAHIN LAGTI, BAS ISS SAB KO BECH KE KUCH PAISE AA JAYEN TAAKI KUCH KHAANE KO MILE’

I was wordless and shocked and had no reply for these rag picker kids, who are the future of our country, in their tender age in place of carrying school bags on their backs, they are collecting garbage. I was lost in my thoughts then I realized that my phone is ringing. When I checked, it was my brother who was calling from the platform of the railway station to come as he has lots of baggage.

I was returning home from the station with my brother, his wife and my cute little niece but I was still thinking that how much cold I was feeling to come out of my bed and those tender kids were picking up rags in such cold conditions for sake of food and cold is not in their consideration even. Vehicle was moving on and on towards my home and question was still there????     

      -          SD BOGAL