February 23, 2006

Unanswered Questions

The incident is so clear, though I experienced it 14 years back. Then I was mere a child, started to gather the beauty of the world in my pair of little hands. I had started to experience the inexperienced world.
I was travelling with my Father .It was a busy and crowded railway station of India. I was enjoying the crowd running for their destination with a bag full of surprise. Pushing and struggling to get in to the train. There is a different kind of noise, smell, a different kind of music with a different kind of rhythm. My father was holding my hand tightly, so as I, with a fear to lose in this strange crowded sphere.
We were waiting for our destined train. Suddenly my eyes stuck upon a person and I was not able to move my eyes from him. He was lying on a corner of the platform, lying on a rag, having a bowl in front him with some scattered coins in it. He is neither having one of his hands nor his legs. He didn't have any cloth in his body except a brief to avoid the shame of a naked person.
I was so surprised to see the person. At the same time I was attacked with a bunch of question. If the person did not have his hands how could he eat? How could he walk without his legs? .. so on and so forth. I was just going to ask my father to make my little brain weightless felt a pull on my hand and hypnotically I boarded the train. I asked my queries to my father. I was quite not sure whether i got the answers of my question or not but for the time being it satisfied me.
As the years kept on passing adding a year in my life with some maturity, knowledge, reasons et al. I started to come to a conclusion and the person started to become the most inspirational person of my life. Whenever i failed and passed a heart-rending passage in my life, the person comes in my thought with a light-"If he can live why don't I?"
But still there is a question without an answer-"Why the man is living? Because he can not die or he doesn't want to die? Does he want to live................?"

Published in the NDTV Writer's Room.
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