Another long monotonous week approaches its end. It’s Friday evening, he packs his black bag as he intends to leave the office for home. His excitement can be easily guessed by the way he is wishing “happy weekend” to his colleagues. But deep within, something is missing besides all this superficial delight. Perhaps, it’s the life… or the lifestyle to be precise which leaves him dissatisfied that it is yet not worth enjoying. Swinging between these feelings of joy and despair, he boards the red colored city bus.
Traffic… another synonym for Mumbai city but today it’s worse than ever, the bus engine was shut long back with least hope… even to crawl. He has been sitting in the bus and trying every little thing to entertain himself. The green leather seat of the bus tries to burn his thighs, making him helpless but nowhere to go than suffer. So, he peeps out of the window to get a little diversion from all this.
Suddenly, an old man beside the road draws his attention. The old man is spreading newspaper on the pavement like a child removing even the last fold to achieve perfection. He finds that the old man is not alone; there are few more people… in fact one is a family, a couple with an infant. They all are sitting on their newspapers covered with some cloth over it making it clear what the old man is trying to do. Those are the few unblessed getting armed to fight another tough night ahead with no place to shelter in this huge city but road-side. Sitting in the bus, he forgets all his little qualms and is moved by a mere thought of how it would feel to be on the other side of the scene. Before, he could develop any further sympathy the bus shivers and starts moving. But that image… still persists in his retina.
Although the bus begins moving but a part of him stays with the people he just saw. Soon, his attention is breached again by a sharp cry of a child sitting two seats ahead of him. And he feels annoyed as if that kid has snatched & broken something precious from his hands. Before any curse could pour from his heart, he notices some strange in kid’s actions. The boy doesn’t seem normal; he looks mentally ill raging for something with his mother trying to control and console him. The scene is so moving that even the hardest rock would melt to wish a pretty smile on that kid’s face.
And here he is, trying to digest the shock he just got and now another one. Today while leaving the office, he was mourning about the things he doesn’t have, but what he finds… he has immensely too much which he never ever realized. It seems this evening was a trap of ‘the Almighty’, a wake-up bell to show him what he had been gifted. And he took all that for granted and lusted for more with a least sense of gratitude.
The bus stops and he gets down… but he feels like thanking everyone for what this little journey has given him. He looks up and says...
“Thank you… for everything…”
