It was a regular Sunday evening for me. I’d nothing special planned other than to meet up with a friend and go to my second most favorite temple here. I went to his place around 8 PM and we rushed to the temple on my bike because they close the temple at 8.30 PM. We made it in time (thanks to my fantastic driving skills (?) and utter disregard to personal safety) and it was turning out to be a nice evening.
The next in our to-do list was to have dinner and we drove back to Tambaram. We dined at this restaurant which used to be one of our regulars 4 years back. They had a sign which read “Celebrating 9 years of serving quality food thanks to you” or something to that effect. We’d seen that sign when it read 5 years. It’s amazing how time flies by! Anyway, we were chit chatting about crazy relatives, broadband Internet service providers & treadmills among other things as we were eating.
After the dinner, I dropped him over at his house and was on my way back home. I was going over this fly over when I noticed this old lady (must be in her 70s) sleeping on the side of the pavement. I hit the brakes and turned around (driving in the wrong direction) and stopped next to her. The noise didn’t wake her up. She was sleeping with her hands around her chest so as to give some warmth. The sight just pained me. The whole world (OK, maybe not the entire world, but India) is rejoicing and getting ready for tomorrow, people flocking to the shops for buying clothes, kids dragging their parents to buy crackers, people buying sweets when this poor soul is sleeping on the road without a shelter, without spare clothes…. with nothing.
Tomorrow is going to be just another day for her. She will not be wearing new clothes, not eat sweets, not watch any of the mildly amusing TV specials. Nothing! There is something wrong with this world.
She must have realized that someone was standing next to her and woke up. I smiled and started talking to her. She was not very coherent for some reason.
Me : Did you have dinner?
Her : Yes.
Me : What’s special for Deepavali?
Her : Nothing.
Me : Will you take money if I offered? (I didn’t want to offend her but I wanted to do something)
Her : Yes.
Me : Please take this. (I pulled a 100 Rupees note from my wallet and placed it in her hand)
Her : Where do you live?
Me : Chromepet.
Her : Pallavaram?
Me : No. Chromepet; just beyond this fly over.
Her : You’ve to go to work now?
Me : No, I don’t work in the night. I’ve a regular day job.
Her : Poi thoongu! (In Tamil – Go home and sleep)
Me : Sari, neengalum thoongunga. (Ok, please do the same.)
I turned around and started racing back to home. I had tears in my eyes and I started thinking of my Patti (grandma). I miss her so much!! You don’t realize what you’ve until you’ve lost it!
Here comes another Deepavali, the festival of lights. To some it’s the festive fireworks, to some it’s about the sharing of sweets, to some it’s another holiday. To me, it’ll always remind me of the last time I was with my Patti.
Happy Diwali PB! I’m sure you made a difference in her life. I hope she has a better Diwali. We are all so materialistic. This post is way too upsetting.
Just one word– Touching
@Abi – You’ve to say something!!
@Ruhi – I agree that the post is way too upsetting. But we’re all not materialistic. Not all of us, anyways.
Hey Sayee.
A touching article indeed! I am visiting your blog for the first time and it is very good. Not just about the writing, but about the sharing
.
@Rajesh – Thank you, sir! Good to see you here.
yeah .. it’s unbearable to see orphaned old people
that was a really touching post..
I’m visiting your blog for the first time.. You’ve got a nice blog … Happy to find another blogger in our team
the other one is me lolz