Roses for Food

I stepped on the footpath. Mild chilling winds hit my feet. It is goodbye to the slipper season and big hello to the shoe season, I told myself. The street looked so vibrant with all kinds of eateries, shopping complexes, and happy faces coming out of their offices. I realized whether in school or at work, the end of the day does bring a smile to one’s face.

I saw a kid trying to sell roses to a couple. No, I do not need roses. Sundays are the days when I get roses or any other flowers for my house, I told myself. A creature of habit, any disbalance in routine can overwhelm me. As I was thinking about how easily can small things disturb my routine, I see the kid approaching me.

He calls me bhaiya, instead of you know, didi. Mentally I appreciate my hairdresser for the job she did with my hair — a pixie cut, it seems. The kid comes straight to the point. He wants me to buy the roses as he and his nani are hungry. The roses he is selling are in no way fresh. Frankly, they seem to have been picked up from somewhere. But this kid refuses to beg and would rather sell something, even at the cost of staying hungry. 

I offered him some money, and he was happy to give all three roses to me. I asked him to keep the extra roses as he could perhaps sell them to someone else. This made him even more glad. The kid took the money and raced off.

Something told me I have been duped of sorts. That there is no hungry nani in the picture. That I was again seen as a “gullible person”. At the same time, I thought, at least he will use the money. We spend so much on ourselves. Many times on things we do not really need. Even if this kid tried to fool me, made up a hunger story, has no nani in the picture, perhaps, that money will help him in some manner. 

As I was juggling with these thoughts, my cab arrived. Walking towards the cab, I got a glimpse of the kid with two other boys settling to eat something. I could not look at them. Hunger can be so mind-numbing. And still, this kid, not only offered me extra flowers but decided not to beg. I recollected all the times when I have been hungry, when I have been craving to eat something delicious, and how difficult it was for me to work on a slightly hungry tummy. The kid’s tenacity touched me deeply. 

As Om Swamiji has mentioned in one of his videos, nature has blessed very few with the “power to give”; most of us are used to just taking from others. I realised that even if I had not seen the hungry kid eat, I should not have been much bothered about being fooled. As it is the amount was not huge, and before holding high moral standards for the poor kid  — it is always better to provide them with the basic necessities.

The fact that someone could eat because of a small random act from my side was enough to make me feel fulfilled. It even made me think, how it perhaps does not take much to get to the other end of life wherein you are struggling to even survive. By the time I reached home, I was filled with gratitude.

Small random acts of kindness, I reminded myself, need not be postmortem-ed. We do not need to audit where our money goes in these cases. As long as it is adding some happiness and hope to someone’s life — we are on the right track.