I hope to buy a balloon.....

The other day I was sitting in the open area in front of Pyramids, S.B. Road. It's a nice place to be in the evening with the brightly lit Pyramids Megastore in the front and the fountains besides spraying water on your face as the breeze carries them to you. It's a nice place to be after a hectic n frustrating day at work.

Everything seemed perfect when I saw this little girl, "Gudiya", that's what I would like to call her. She was a very pretty girl of age 11 or 12 with a bunch of balloons in her hands. She was walking over to each person sitting around and asking if they would like to purchase a balloon from her. Everyone she went to, said no to purchase a balloon. As I was expecting, she came to me too; the moment she stood in front of me, my face lit up with a warm smile. Noticing this she thrust a balloon in my hand. She was smiling at me too when I purchased that balloon from her. As she happily hopped away to other people I looked at her and wondered how much she must be making out of selling these handfull of balloons.

I was left pondering on the possibility that she could be the sole earning member of her family. How much would she earn after selling these balloons? Would that be sufficient enough to purchase a one time meal for her mother, father and herself? As these questions popped up in my mind I was thinking about the lavish life (as compared to her's) that I got to spend as a kid playing cricket with my buddies, buying spins at Sarasbaug or a wooden bat to play cricket. I wondered who would be making all those things available? Who would even make a simple doll available when she felt like having one?

As I watched her run away and visit the same people again n again hoping that they might buy a balloon this time, I thought about the different classes of people in our very own India. There is me who is earning roughly 20 odd thousand rupees per month supporting a family and living a life with sufficient resources. There are millionare people too who are making zillion dollar take overs. There are people who are gifting 5 crore rupees car to their friends. And then there are people like Gudiya, who not just hopes that all her baloons sell today but also hopes that she gets to taste the bengali sweet that she sees in a sweet shop everyday on her way home. As I pass the S.B road every night on my way back home, I find 3-4 kids on the signal. The difference between me and them is that I am wearing a LEE jacket to protect me from the cold when I drive and they don even have a shirt to cover their bodies?

I don't know how much of what I see is true but it makes me wonder why wouldn't these different classes of people help raise the standard of people like Gudiya. Where does this money that these big shots earn go? Why is it that we get to read in the papers very often that Amitabh tops the list of non-tax payers with some X crore rupees?

The software firm I work in has approximately around 4 thousand people. If I decide to collect one rupee from each person every month, children like Gudiya will be able to go to atleast municipality school's, if not international school's which ask for whooping 10K + as yearly fees. I know this is just a wild thought and reality is far from truth, however, its not that far too.

I don't know how long will it take for Gudiya to start going to school or maybe her entire lifetime. However, I know one thing, if she goes to school and takes some basic education, she could live with pride and earn sufficiently for her family too. What I see today reflecting in her tears is a life that she desires looking at other kids and her smile tells me she accepts, that she won't see this life ever. Realization dawns upon me and makes me thank god for making my parents capable enough so that I din't get to see such days and also pray to god to make me capable enough to make sure my children get their share of love and happiness!!

I hope to run into Gudiya one day again as I visit that area, and hand over some cash to her so that she can have her favorite mithai. I hope to see her smile at me again, I hope to be humble, I hope to buy a balloon again .....I hope to buy a balloon again .....