Two scenes from today's travel:
I was waiting for a connection bus at one of the so called 'circles' in Bangalore (they simply call a junction as circle, there is actually no circle!). Waiting in the shade of a sprawling tree (that's a lie to make me feel better...the sun was blazing hot), a family of 5 suddenly materialised next to me - father, mother, 3 children-all boys. They immedietly proceeded to make themselves comfortable on the concrete ring at the base of the tree. Suddenly the father shot off to the 'circle' where there were many small- small shops. Seeing his hurry, I thought he was going to get a cigarette. When he came back, he had a small packet wrapped in paper in his hands. The whole remaining team looked at it with interest. He untied it, took out what seemed to me like 5 Maddur Vades, handed one to the eldest boy 1st, then the other boys, next to his wife, finally took one for himself and they all proceeded to munch on it sitting there waiting for the bus. I must admit that I started getting slightly hungry after surveying the whole scene and quickly turned my gaze away.
Then right behind me was a group of women and children, squatting on the pavement and eating and shouting and talking and berating the children, all at the same time. They were eating from parcels of rice, spread open on the ground. Seeing the way they were dressed, they looked like the women and children who beg at traffic signals. Seeing one of the children, suddenly I thought the little boy was blind in one eye. I had a longer look and it seemed that the eye was reddish and had discharge and was appearing small, probably conjunctivitis. I was thinking why they are not taking the boy to a doctor. The little fellow himself seemed little concerned about it and was happily eating and playing around.I imagined myself going up to the boy, getting a closer look and advising the mother to consult a doctor...then I thought of the choicest expletives that would commence from her pan chewed-red-lips and suddenly deleted my imagination.
I was waiting for a connection bus at one of the so called 'circles' in Bangalore (they simply call a junction as circle, there is actually no circle!). Waiting in the shade of a sprawling tree (that's a lie to make me feel better...the sun was blazing hot), a family of 5 suddenly materialised next to me - father, mother, 3 children-all boys. They immedietly proceeded to make themselves comfortable on the concrete ring at the base of the tree. Suddenly the father shot off to the 'circle' where there were many small- small shops. Seeing his hurry, I thought he was going to get a cigarette. When he came back, he had a small packet wrapped in paper in his hands. The whole remaining team looked at it with interest. He untied it, took out what seemed to me like 5 Maddur Vades, handed one to the eldest boy 1st, then the other boys, next to his wife, finally took one for himself and they all proceeded to munch on it sitting there waiting for the bus. I must admit that I started getting slightly hungry after surveying the whole scene and quickly turned my gaze away.
Then right behind me was a group of women and children, squatting on the pavement and eating and shouting and talking and berating the children, all at the same time. They were eating from parcels of rice, spread open on the ground. Seeing the way they were dressed, they looked like the women and children who beg at traffic signals. Seeing one of the children, suddenly I thought the little boy was blind in one eye. I had a longer look and it seemed that the eye was reddish and had discharge and was appearing small, probably conjunctivitis. I was thinking why they are not taking the boy to a doctor. The little fellow himself seemed little concerned about it and was happily eating and playing around.I imagined myself going up to the boy, getting a closer look and advising the mother to consult a doctor...then I thought of the choicest expletives that would commence from her pan chewed-red-lips and suddenly deleted my imagination.
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