A Mother Speaks!!

At every traffic signal, that rag-picker carrying a toddler on her hips tugs me at the heart. I immediately visualize my 1 year old in him. What if my Siyona…!!! Unconsciously, I shudder. “Don’t look at her!” my friend says. “She is able-bodied. Why can’t she earn a livelihood? Probably, this child is not even hers. You give alms to one means you are actually promoting child-kidnap rackets!”

Agreed, dear friend. I will not look at her. No, not because I have been listening to what you have been saying. But simply because I feel helpless. I can do nothing for that child struggling hard in the scorching sun. Barely clothed at all, his big eyes gleam with hope and fascination as he looks down at us from the other side of the window. Has he been kidnapped? Who are his parents? Where are they? Will he ever know what it means to rest in the mother’s lap? Does he deserve this? Maybe he is too young to worship You, dear God, but does that mean You can be so much unjust?

I wish I could help him. And others like him. Spread across in every nook and corner of the country. But alas, every time I save up, Siyona’s future comes in full view. And I invest in some mutual fund or the other. So, in short, I never seem to have enough!!

You, my boy, although I met you in the traffic signal, and silently wept at your condition, are silently forgotten as well. Once out of sight and the car has rolled over a couple of kilometers away from you, you are that tiny speck on a distant horizon, which everybody sees but nobody ponders upon. Life is too much about ‘ME’ and my daughter to think about you. Maybe next time, I will hand you over a 10-rupee note. But that’s it. Even if I have something extra to spare, why should I do it? It’s my hard earned money. Should I not spend it on my second Europe trip???

And besides, I am a mother. I have to fend for MY child! Why you? We have this universal figure called God. Blame Him. And, I am sure. Even He will not help you. Why?? Because even He has a family!! And so many more important assignments!! Probably, he doesn’t even know you exist!

So if I, and more mothers like me, spare some of their income towards the welfare of the likes of you, would we not be eradicating poverty to some extent? Would we not be improving the condition of our society? Why should we?? Politicians are there. Richer people are there. Let them do it. And as for the guilt of having excess for our children, we have done our part. By acting helpless and weeping over.