A handful of thoughts

When I walked out of the station it was nearly 10:30 in the night and rickshaw stand was deserted save one old man who pulled his rickshaw towards me. This man is one of the oldest rickshaw pullers in the area and the only one who waits here with his rickshaw until the passengers of the last train arrive. But I haven’t seen him for the past few days; may be a month or so. When I asked him why he wasn’t around all these days, he said “I wasn’t very well dear. Had some breathing problems and stayed at home all this while. The Municipal doctor had given me a drug but that was no good it kept me to bed for fifteen days…”

“But why do you have to work? Isn’t it time you retired? What does you son do?” I ask.

“My son died when he was 37. And now I have to look after his widow and four kids. They are my responsibility you see.”

His son used to work for a cable channel station and his death came when he fell from the ladder while fixing a wire. But this is no sad story that I am going to tell you. This story is of that man who waits for me no matter how late I am from work. A man who goes on and on and on about his grand daughters who are appearing for the university graduate examination this year. He just knows that he’ll fix it. He’ll get his daughter-in-law a decent job that will fetch her rupees fifteen hundred every month once her kids are old enough.   

I know he’ll wait for me however late I am from work, and get his grand daughters nice husbands and some sort of income for his daughter-in-law. In case you drop by my station after 10 at night; don’t worry, there’ll be an old bearded man in kurta and lungi who’ll take you on his rickshaw to wherever you want to go.