Short Story
I saw him at the side of the road as I was walking to the station that morning. Selling vegetables that he had laid out on the jute sack. Just a few different vegetables. How much would he earn selling such a small lot of vegetables, I wondered.
On the way back from work, in the evening, I noticed that he had moved across to the other side of the road --- probably following the Sun as it moved from East to West, settling down in the shade of a tree. He didn't seem to have made much of a success selling the few vegetables. Just on a whim, I stopped and asked him "Kya bhav aalu ?" ("What price the potatoes ?") He named a price, hardly looking up at me. I had no idea what the current retail price was for any vegetables. I never did the vegetable shopping in my household. A woman walking past overheard and stopped and said "Badshahi aalu hai kya ? Is kimat pe kitne bechega ?" ("Are the royal potatoes ? How many will you sell at this price ?"). The boy just shrugged his shoulders.
I wondered about careers. I was a junior executive in a rapidly growing corporation. Soon I would be a deputy manager. Who knows what rank I would be holding 10 years from now. Then I asked myself about the boy. Would he still be selling vegetables 10 years from now ? At the same location on the same street ? Or would he be dead in some alley, killed by the drugs he might have become addicted to, just to escape the misery of his life ?
Life went on for me. I ignored the boy the rest of the week. I even forgot about him the next month. I moved to another location, with a promotion.
Ten years later, I happened to return to the same street to meet a long lost friend of mine. Did I see the boy, now ten years older, a teenager ?
I saw him at the side of the road as I was walking to the station that morning. Selling vegetables that he had laid out on the jute sack. Just a few different vegetables. How much would he earn selling such a small lot of vegetables, I wondered.
On the way back from work, in the evening, I noticed that he had moved across to the other side of the road --- probably following the Sun as it moved from East to West, settling down in the shade of a tree. He didn't seem to have made much of a success selling the few vegetables. Just on a whim, I stopped and asked him "Kya bhav aalu ?" ("What price the potatoes ?") He named a price, hardly looking up at me. I had no idea what the current retail price was for any vegetables. I never did the vegetable shopping in my household. A woman walking past overheard and stopped and said "Badshahi aalu hai kya ? Is kimat pe kitne bechega ?" ("Are the royal potatoes ? How many will you sell at this price ?"). The boy just shrugged his shoulders.
I wondered about careers. I was a junior executive in a rapidly growing corporation. Soon I would be a deputy manager. Who knows what rank I would be holding 10 years from now. Then I asked myself about the boy. Would he still be selling vegetables 10 years from now ? At the same location on the same street ? Or would he be dead in some alley, killed by the drugs he might have become addicted to, just to escape the misery of his life ?
Life went on for me. I ignored the boy the rest of the week. I even forgot about him the next month. I moved to another location, with a promotion.
Ten years later, I happened to return to the same street to meet a long lost friend of mine. Did I see the boy, now ten years older, a teenager ?
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