Few days back, I was at Ghaziabad railway station, late afternoon; I had to catch my train to Saharanpur . Like any railway station in India, Ghaziabad station is also dirty with an unhygienic outlook. Normally I would grab a coke and listen to music, pretending I am not there, ignoring the mendicants, the destitute, the handicaps around me, because over the years I haven’t been able to gather enough courage to witness these diversities of life, to actually have the guts to look into these guys. But this did not happen today, I forgot to put my earphones and was stranded looking at the scenes around me.
I was looking at a family where three small kids half naked, were lying on the platform, and a women, most probably their mother, very lean and thin, her thin arms coming out of her blouse sleeves looked like a bamboo hanging out from a tent, she was breast feeding another of her child, and I wandered what else was left inside her to be transferred. Then someone tapped me from behind, a poor girl around 7 or 8, carrying a baby in her hands, asking me for some money, I am very bad at ignoring poor girls, I gave her 10 bucks, don’t know why, whether I wanted her to go away and eat, or I wanted her to just go away and help me not facing the reality, don’t know I was good or I was coward.
There was another family, a good rich Punjabi looking family, not only the look but the language too made them look Punjabi, they were having a good time eating bananas and sharing a joke or two. One of the family kids gave his banana to a dog, since the dog was giving him a dogs typical “please give some to me” look. Perhaps the dog did not like the taste of banana as it ate only half of it, and left the rest on the platform, then to my biggest shock, a poor child, with all of mother earths dirt on his body ,who was noticing all of this, came running and picked the same left over banana and started eating it……………
It happened a week back, but I am still not over it. Guys, I appeal to all of you, please do not waste any food, it is very precious, so next time when you leave food at some restaurant or your canteen, do remember there is something better you can do with the food.......
