The "Ghaggar river" has been a boon and bane for the city residents. Boon as it provides water, provides a room for submersion of idols, performance of religious rituals, last rites, washermans den, living to the rural people and agricultural productivity. Bane as the over-bridge has been the breeding ground for traffic and accidents. I have never heard of anyone drowning in the river or the occurrence of floods though.
My visit to the river was brief. A beautiful damaged idol of Lord Ganesha, an Indian Diety, that had been had been lying in the rare of my car for a couple of weeks was to be submerged in water and it was high time I went there.
My tyrst with the poor
Anywayz, I zoomed across the over-bridge and went towards the river through a rocky man-made path on a rickety two-wheeler. I got down with the Ganesh idol to submerge it in the flowing water. There were a couple of families that had come for obvious reasons and a few kids who lived beside the river in tents asked me if they can do my bit of work. After some apprehensions, I agreed. "I would send it for the first time and then they can pick it up and go in later." This was the consensus and we did so.
The children were there to make some money from people who come there. Had it been something of value to them, they would have picked it up and taken it home. But then, I pitied them and asked the small child not to go so deep. He came back safely and two of his friends joined in.
After I saw the Ganesh Idol safely float across and disappear, I asked the children about the class they studied in. As expected, they replied in negative, "we dont study." I dont know why, was it the lack of time or what, I dint care to ask them, 'WHY' and moved on. I put my hand in my pocket and the child asked me for money. After some fishing I made the 3 of them happy by giving them some currency notes. "Wow, mast hai..sahi hai..." were the screams of glee. It seemed as if I was their first catch for the day. The child then ran in joy across the shore and got on to his cycle with excitement and said, "Bjaiya dekho, main cycle chala sakta hoon" (See, I can ride a bicycle). I smiled at him and told him to ride. The other guy too chipped in and said he could drive. I gave them a mechanical praise. The third child ran across and sent the word to his friends. I asked them where the money would go? They replied, we would buy some good plaything for ourselves. I told them not to give it to their parents if they smoke or drink and they replied in affirmative.
When I sit down now, I think, I should have spent more time with them. My boss would have fired me if I did not reach the AGRO TECH conference where the round table discussion on the food processing industry was going on and make a press release.
However, as I write this, I feel a spiritual bug, a sense of contentment and happiness that comes from rare acts of kindness and selflessness. I guess, I made them happy. They would remember this. And I shoud for get this. ("Forget the good done by you to others," my master said). When I look up now, WoW....its been a great....One meaningful day after long...what a feeling
And yet, the poem gallops in my mind-
