A visit to the pediatrician never fails to leave me nervous and the last visit was no different. Probably this was the reason for my lack of concentration and one of the reasons for my wallet being picked in an MTC bus. But you never know…
It was just a rare one-the –spot decision that made me board the bus along with my mom and daughter. After my mom and daughter sat down, I was standing beside them. The two girls behind me looked very scared. They were shabbily dressed and so was the little kid which the girl right behind me had perched so carelessly. Runny nose, sooty hair, blank eyes and a very soiled dress is how I remember the boy (somehow, I feel that the kid must be a boy) who stared at me. He must just be around a year old.
I was previously so worried about my daughter’s cold and all the medicines that she had to take. And now it somehow hurt me more to think that this kid was not even being treated. Kids should not suffer in any form.
You would have guessed by now about how I lost my wallet. They got down in two stops and when we got down I realized I had lost it. There were just a few hundreds but the girls left me with the dreadful task of calling up the bank to block my card, reapplying for the very important pan card and so. Yes, I agree I should have been more attentive, shouldn't have carried my pan card everywhere and maybe shouldn't have taken a bus at all. My glaring mistakes apart the incident has left me very troubled. I somehow am not able to forget the little boy and it has left me with so many questions:
- Whose kid is that? Is the girl his mom? If yes, how can she do this? If no, whose kid is that?
- When she had held the boy carelessly what if he had been hurt?
- Do they get him something to eat throughout the day?
- How will the kid grow up to be? Will he go to school or will he learn all the tricks in this trade before he passes his childhood?
- Isn't this worse than child labor?
- Why can’t the kid have a normal childhood? It is not by choice that he is in this trade?
- How many more kids are being tortured this way?
I know I might never find any answers to any of my questions but I couldn't stop venting about it.
Wish that certain things never happen!
