The Dilemma

It was a day like any other. Nothing special about it - people may say what they want, but I beg to differ. Weekday, made obvious by the merciless honking of cars and the roar of their engines. Cars containing people pretending to be too busy with their lives to care about this world. Cars containing people working without a sense of clarity in their lives, scrambling to add up penny after penny in their banks accounts, aspiring to be the next Birlas and Ambanis, very well knowing that they'll never even be 1/1000th as close.

I shifted my focus. I looked up, and there she was again. She was sitting on what I suppose was her 'favorite spot'. I observed her actions carefully for some time, from a distance, just like the way I had been doing for the last one week or so. She was lonely. Nobody paid any attention to her. To the people, she was just another soul struggling for existence like them.

The photographer in me would have loved to capture her aura in a camera. The clothes she wore were so unlike the people around her. Now you see, we live in a society wherein when a poor man wears torn jeans, he does so because he has no other option. But when a rich teen wears the same style of torn jeans, it is considered as 'fashionable'. But personal opinions aside, my subject did not care about 'fashion' even a bit. Her hair kept unattended, like she no longer cared about the trivial rituals of women of her age. It was obvious that she had more pressing issues to care about.

Her most distinctive feature were her eyes. They were unlike any others' I've ever seen. Eyes, that had perhaps seen it all in life. Eyes, that cried for love and longing - like a kitten looking up at you expectantly for more food. Eyes, that had been doing all the talking since the day her dry lips got tired of it.

I wanted to help her. I wanted to make her happy. I wanted to solve all her problems, if I had the power. My mind was racing. Should I do it? Would it be the correct thing to do?

I finally decided to approach her today. Nervous, I started walking awkwardly towards her. What I was gonna do was nothing too spectacular to anyone around me. You all have done it so many times, without giving it too much of a thought. But it was a big deal for me. For reasons of my own, I never give much thought to helping her 'kind'. I am a man of science and I believe strongly in the 'survival of the fittest' theory. But there was something about her. She was different. Her skin and her clothes convinced my mind to betray my principles. I passed by her quickly, not looking in her too familiar eyes, bending ever so slightly in front of her.

Hearing the clank of my coin hitting her metal bowl, I walked away, smiling a little, knowing that at least two people in this world are going to have a fulfilling dinner tonight.

(By the way, this was my second entry in the Scribe Hunt competition, unfortunately it did not win. Still, loved writing this post!)