Boy in shabby clothes

#BOY #IN #SHABBY #CLOTHES

It was a hot afternoon and I was working in my office when my phone rang. I picked up the phone and it was my wife.

“Hello, how are you,” she asked.

“I am very busy, can we talk later,” I replied.

“Sorry, it is something serious. That’s why I called you,” she said.

“What happened,” I enquired in quite uneasiness.

“Grandpa passed away and we all have to go to the ancestral village,” she told.

“I am coming home after seeking permission from my Boss,” I replied and hung up the phone.

I wrote an application for leave, discussed my problem with my boss and hurriedly moved out of office towards my car. As already said it was very hot outside and as I opened the door of my car it was like a hot chimney. I switched on the AC and somehow managed to drive quickly towards home inspite of heat inside.

I was quickly driving towards my home with glasses of the vehicle on but my mind was still riding in thoughts of those days when my grandpa used to tell us moral stories, play with us and at my times protected us from the wrath of my father.

I stopped at the crossing nearby my house as the signal was red. I was still thinking about the old days with my grandpa and I was come out of my thoughts when I heard knock on the glass of my car.

I saw a young boy of the age 14-15 years in a shabby outfit continuously knocking the glass of car and saying something which I couldn’t heard as the glasses were up.

I signalled him to go away while thinking in my mind that he is a beggar and looking for some money or else. But he was not ready to go and impatiently remained knocking the glasses signalling me with folded hands to down the glass.

Very angrily I down the glasses of car and shouted on him, “Don’t understand, I said you to get lost from here. Why the hell are you irritating me?

He very politely replied, “I am really very sorry sir, I don’t want to bother you.”

He kept on saying, “I am not here to get anything from you. I saw smoke coming out of your vehicle and came here running from the last turn to inform you about that.”

I parked my vehicle on the roadside and checked the smoke coming out which I did not noticed as I was in my thoughts. Then I called the workshop and sent them my location.

Then I recalled about that boy and tried to find him as I want to apologize but he was gone. In the meanwhile, the mechanic from the Workshop reached the spot and fixed the problem on the spot and after that I proceeded towards my home and thereafter to my ancestral village.

Many days are passed but I still feel the same guilt of misunderstanding the boy who was trying to help me. I want to say him sorry but I don’t know about his whereabouts.

We are so insensitive even these days that we try to judge people with their cast, creed, colour, attire or physical appearance and don’t try to even hear them. We should take a second thought to it.

                                                                        – S. D. Bogal