Disappointments have a special way of showing up just when
you don't need them most. That is the first thought to cross my mind as I
watched the train leave the platform. We were supposed to be on that train; however,
we could only watch it with dismay from across the tracks. It was a holiday
that we had been looking forward to for a very long time; I kept thinking as we
dragged our bags back home. If only we had left five minutes earlier, if only
there wasn't that much traffic on the road, if only the cabbie had taken a
different road; if only...this hadn't happened to me.
Even if this had to happen, I wish it wouldn't have happened
today. No!! how could we have missed THIS trip!! The mind wouldn't stop calling
this unfair and curse life for being unjust at times. 'At times?!?!'...a second
thought smirked its way in. 'Are you not
lucky that life is unjust to you only at times. Don't you feel lucky to have so
many things come so easily to you?' An image hurried across my mind.
Every time I passed through the market to pick to the
missus, I saw this couple sit near a turning. Weary faced, probably in their
80s, this couple sat by the road selling petty things like combs & draw
strings; things that don't cost more than 5-10 bucks and things that you would buy
only occasionally. How much would they be making daily? 50-60 bucks? or 100 at
best? I wonder how fair life would feel if at 80 you are to sit on the road
daily to earn 100 bucks in an expensive city like Mumbai.