Satiated

Bright golden sunbeams hit her eyelids. Finding the piercing light intolerable, she opened her tired and sad eyes, and looked at her kids. They seemed almost unconscious. Taking a deep breath and cursing God as usual, she got up. Draping the long cloth on her body, inappropriate to be called a ‘Sari’, she made the best attempt possible to cover the body. Any skin show was not desired. Men, before looking at her condition and helping her; would love to salivate seeing single lady, no matter if she’s a beggar. “These males are born rascals”, she would always think, though she was too far to be called attractive. Possessing a lean frame and dark complexion with highly blunt features, even an elite class lady of her assets would have looked average.
Males are least thoughtful for such realities. A helpless young lady is a treat for many. Men are from Mars and women from Venus, as they say. What a Martian characteristic!

Splashing water on face, she woke up her kids, rather rudely. Adversities make you senseless. Sometimes it seems true - love is good only till you have money. Once the latter goes off, first becomes meaningless. It was the fourth day consecutively when she could not afford a single grain to feed herself and her children. This was not for the first time when they had not eaten food for a day or two. Four days is a long time though! All parts of her body had become so feeble, almost lifeless that begging seemed difficult for her. However, no choice was left. She looked at Chotu and Gudiya - her children. Chotu was 3 years old boy while Gudiya had lived only one and half years of her miserable life on earth. Looking at Chotu’s malnourished face and soiled hands, she suddenly remembered how she had beaten him up and made to sleep when he stubbornly asked for food the previous night. Rashes were highly visible even on his dark face. Gudiya was too young to express her needs; she could only cry for hours together and then go off to sleep. Tears filled up mother’s eyes. “I have to arrange for food for children today”, she repeatedly said to herself as she entered the suffocating traffic of the city.

It was a busy morning for the ‘apparently blessed’ class of the world. She stopped for a while thinking of what those people must have had for breakfast today. Their kids would be so happy after taking meals and………and……….and nothing beyond.
People hardly had time to pay heed to the poor hungry lady standing with her daughter sandwiched inside the cloth hung at back and young son holding the torn pallu of his mother’s ‘classic attire’. Many of them were well protected in there expensive cars, other’s in small vehicles and yet others were in local conveyance. Everyone was engaged in one or the other important task. Some of them were busy reading newspapers; trying to understand the progress our nation made in last 24 hours. Politics, sports, entertainment, business - they had to be aware about all of it; it’s a matter of country’s progress after all! Some were occupied talking on phones: to friends, relatives, business partners, totally indifferent of who were by their sides. Some were simply getting restless and cribbing over the traffic. No one had time………none of them. How could a lady and her kids starving be comparable to other agendas?
Its all about aspirations: some of the people in crowd aimed to be entrepreneurs, some wished to grab a good job, some others who were in job wanted escalations in positions; some wanted good relations. Asp…i..ra….tions! It sounds so elegant. Prodigious plans, innumerable permutations and combinations, failures and success. It requires hard work and perseverance to achieve a goal. Be it an entrepreneur working towards sustainability of business or be it a poor mother begging to feed herself and her kids. Its all about aspirations.

She started with her daily job, running from one car to another, one auto to the other, one person to the next; in a hope of getting a penny which she could add on to make for today’s meal.
“Babuji, please give something. Your life would be flooded with happiness and success. Your children will enjoy long lives. Please help, saab ji. These poor kids have not eaten anything since last week!” Some looked at her with disgust, some with anger. Some turned their faces and some shouted at her. She did not give up, gathered up all her energy most of which was sucked by hunger for past four days. She continued begging merely for stretching her painful life. She was scared to die. “What would happen to Chotu and Gudiya if she dies?”

The sun begun to set down; making the horizon smudged with the orange sheen. In the corner of the main road, which was as busy as in the morning, was seen silhouette of a skinny lady and two kids. By now; she was deprived of all her strengths, could barely smile and express her contentment over the money she had in hands. Finally she could manage to collect some amount for food. She rushed to the nearby thela selling Chola Bhatura. As the smell of the spicy treat hit the nostrils of Chotu he looked at her mother with pleading expressions. He was scared to speak something and again receive hitting from her mother.
She stretched her right hand with an old paper note and asked for whatever the vendor cold give for the petty amount.

Taking the meal she gave a greater part of it to her kids and took a minuscule amount of food for herself. Her face reflected radiance and tears rolled down her cheeks as she saw Chotu binging on food. A feast could not be as delicious as this roadside meal was. Gudiya could hardly swallow food unless the mother mashed it with her hands and made her eat.
After Gudiya was fed, the lady finally sighed and looked at the little portion she had kept aside for herself. She was so hungry; food seemed to be God after suffering four days of starvation.
“Ma, can I have some more of it. I’m still hungry”, mumbled Chotu. She was frozen.
“What?” she screamed. “I already gave you more than that. Now you are eyeing on this, too?” Chotu timidly stepped back and turned silent.
Suddenly she realized the mistake committed. “My children are my sole motive of life. What if they are away from me some day?” As this thought struck her mind, she suddenly fell numb. Her senses could no longer make her realize hunger. Without uttering a single word further, she handed over the damp paper carrying little bits and pieces of food to her son. Perplexed, Chotu took the packet of food and ate it slowly.

She never fell this divine joy ever before. Flawless motherhood curbed every other desire and now she could actually feel satiated.