The Pearls of Catharsis Times Issue 04, July 2017 | Page 69

neighbour (but any
amateur can tell them
apart from the well
finished readymade
clothes) but for her
daughter she buys the
best of branded
clothes. She tries so
hard, not for her own
sake but for her
daughter’s whose
friends’ mothers can
greet each other in
English without any
hesitation.
She boarded the bus with her daughter. She was trying to find a sit, and she
was able to persuade a man to give up his sit because her child was tired
after tennis practice. It is at this moment that an old man with a walking stick
boarded the same bus. He struggled to find his way through the disgustingly
crowded bus. And her little girl offered him her seat; the seat which her
mother had so sincerely and selflessly secured for her little tired child. The
mother tried to protest, but her daughter had already stood up. And the man
had somehow managed to settle himself with the tin box on wheels still
speeding its way ahead. And this little act of generosity went unnoticed by
the other commuters who stood there perspiring and drying their brows
with their handkerchiefs, the business in the city went on as usual relentless
and fast while a mother watched her child in awe. The city gained a new
resident inside that blue and yellow bus with dusty floors and broken
windows that vibrate when the bus is on an empty road, the mother knew it
and she was glad for it too.
- Arnab Chakraborty