‘Same old routine’ – The omnipresent complain about the repetitive chores we perform in our daily lives! The boredom is not totally uncalled for, especially for people who commute for long hours to their work places - like me. Clock takes over right from the morning it decides when I walk, bath, do breakfast and get off to work! But as I think about it, I wonder what an amazing thing time is!
As I ride to my workplace around the same time and on the same roads almost every day, I notice many people - complete strangers – but tied together with this thread called ‘routine’. There is this shop on one of the narrow alleys, which opens almost at the same time as I cross it. An old Muslim vegetable vendor (whose face looks similar to that of Naseeruddin Shah) carrying vegetables on his hand cart would be around the same sharp turn that comes my way. Then there is this bald and stoic policeman who deftly manages the traffic at an under-pass. He would always be smiling even when everybody around him is honking aloud!
Among many such people and places that I see as I travel to office I can never ignore a special set of people. Nearer to my office and on a long straight stretch of the road, I daily notice a group of small girls who must be around 13-14 years old walking past me and in a direction that is opposite to the vehicular traffic. They belong to the same school, as their uniforms indicate and are remarkably bold! How can I say that?
Well, the girls are all blind. They walk in groups of three, with one girl holding the stick, countering the potholes and dodging the incoming traffic while the other two huddle close to their leader! There are some three or four such groups that I notice daily. The apathy of our society is appalling when you see lack of even the basic infrastructure for such differently- abled. It won’t take a genius to figure out the tremendous stress these aspiring little girls must be undergoing as they walk past the violent and unruly traffic. I have seen them getting scared of honking, stopping suddenly to the sound of breaking tyres, probing the ground hastily with their stick and yet continuing their journey one step at a time, daily.
What amazes me and also puts me to shame is an often visible smile on their faces! The smiles are amazing because they convey hope. Despite all the odds, there must still be some hope in them that pushes them to try harder each day and lets them smile! What’s shameful is that we as a society do so little to help such hopes.
I don’t know where they come from; I don’t know which school they walk to. But I know their lives wouldn’t be easy. In a society filled with millions who worry about their inability to buy the latest mobile phones, cars and luxurious homes – these girls dare to swim against the tide. These complete strangers, much younger than me, daily teach a lesson or two as I ride past them. I salute you girls!
