A child is born. All it has is its innocent consciousness. The tiny tiny legs, when they crawl on the concretised footpath, they don’t know the embarrassment of it. Its mouth and hand dabble for the touch and feel of its mothers body. Not caring about the smell of the sweat it might carry. The sweat, which has been persistent companion of its mother as she might have been begging in the scorching sun the whole day. The nipples of her breast, which might have gone dry due to her own dehydration. The child doesn’t understand this science and society. Why its mother has to suffer in such a way. Why the nipples, its only hunger relief, should be deprived of the basic means of resources, in this world, which is overflowing with resources. Even the question of why does not arise in the child’s mind. Because all it has is its innocent consciousness.
The child grows a little. It can barely walk. It can feel the hunger and deprivation. Still it does not know the reason. It demands the basic love and care like any other child. It longs to be pampered like any other child. And yes, it does have started living the world with a better emotional quotient. But it still doesn’t know why it has to cry so many times in a day. Even for as petty thing as a piece of bread, piece of cloth or a piece of love. Life seems to be all in bits and pieces. It feels like a punching bag for the frustrated parents. Afterall its always much easier getting angry on the weak. Parents are weak due to poverty. And they find the weaker person in the child. The child takes the brunt of everything. Hunger was always its companion. Now anger and frustration have also joined it. It doesn’t know what it love. The love accompanied by richness. But still the child is oblivion to the huge wall. The wall which separates its family on the footpath and the people in the vehicles just 2 feet away. The wall is nowhere to be seen. But the wall will always be there to be felt.
The child grows a little more. It can run. And understand the injustice the life has thrown at it. But the child still is unable to understand why the kid in the car is always smiling back. The child never has an emotion to smile back. The child does seldom smile back out of human nature of mirroring the other person. But then never does it happen that the door of the car opens up and the smiling face comes over to play. It will never happen. But the child probably does not know this yet. The child also does not know why it always is deprived of a toy. Are rocks the toys? Are tree branches toys? Or is it the piece of small wood which probably has a shape like none other. Is this the toy? Probably the concept of toy has not occurred to the child. Again deprived of a basic necessity.
The child grows a bit more. The child is now a girl. A little girl. Brought to this wretched world to carry the burden of work and taking care of her younger brothers and sisters. She is entitled to take over the legacy of her mother. The legacy of begging on the same street. But thats not what she wants. She also has a little aspiration of combing her hair. Hair, probably which are silky soft and not the dirty mess she has been endowed with. She also aspires to have a clean dress. She probably may never ever get into a car which she has seen forever from the living room of her home. What else do you see when the living room and bedroom is a namesake footpath? She will understand very later in life that the concept of equal opportunity never existed in this world. She was destined to be poor beggar. But for now, her understanding is all about the pennies she collects all day long from the strangers in the vehicles. She has never know any other way of life. Her idea of this pennies is that more she collects it, her life will become better. Better food, better cloths and better love from parents.
But then the unthinkable happens. She grows a little bit more. And gets sucked into the vicious cycle of poverty even deeper.
What the life has in store for her, she never wanted it. And probably, she never deserved it.
