The blessed one.

The blessed one.

Walking down the market lane as I was absorbing my surroundings, looking at the brightly lit shops and people, greeting the few i knew with a casual smile, was when i saw HIM.
Before you let your minds wander into the world of adam and eve and jump to conclusions I would like to tell you that this in no way is a love story..
He was standing just a foot away from me.. short and thin.. as poorly dressed as could be in a torn shirt and troursers just ending above his ankles (obviously not his) and
second hand school shoes covering his feet.. every inch of him reflected poverty. Not more than eight or nine years of age, his face had a subtle expression of maturity, maturity
that only comes from experience and dealing with the hardships of life. As i registered his glum features my eyes fell on his shoulders.. they were drooping like he carried the burden of the
world alone on them.. but then again he was, he carried a ragged cotton bag, casually sewed and on the verge of tearing apart, on his shoulders which seemed to weigh him down..
his bag contained a cotton cloth and polish tins.. in his hands i saw two shoe polishing brushes.. he was no points for guessing a shoe cleaner.
Nothing pained me more but the expression in his eyes.. his eyes had a look of hunger and exhaustion in them.. they spoke volumes.
You may call me a softie but that sight touched my heart. His tiny hands were rough and black, his hair ruffled but these were the things that least bothered him.. right now he was looking for
potentional customers whose shoes he could clean and earn a mere ruppee for it, that was his immediate need. I saw a bunch of school boys around his age pass by him, he looked at them with envy..
more than envy he had a longing which i could sense.. he would give anything to trade places with the school boys and live an ordinary life.. a life that was supposed to be his.. but its not.
His pleading eyes were scanning the market when he saw me staring at him. His eyes lit up with the thought that maybe i wanted him to clean my shoes.. but his smile faded just as fast as it had appeared
when he saw that i wasnt wearing shoes.. just a pair of flipflops which do not need cleaning. His face fell,I could see the disapointment  sprawl over his face.
I felt sorry for him.. but that was all i could do.. i stood there watching him not knowing whatelse to do.. his eyes met my gaze and in the spilt of a second he turned and vanished into the crowds to earn his daily bread
but he left me with a question.. is life ever fair to anybody?

Walking back as i was pondering over the question i realised that my problems were nothing in comparison to the little boy's. All i had to worry about was what i was going to wear to the party that i was attending the next week, while
he had to worry about where his next meals woulb be coming from or whether he would eat anything at all.
But people like me can never understand the how cruel and harsh life can be.. because we are the 'blessed' ones. We dont have to suffer the humiliation of cleaning other people's shoes or srcubbing their utensils or for that matter begging.. we dont know
how it feels to be looked down upon, to be kicked and abused.
No we dont, we never can.
And yet we are the ones that use the phrase 'Life isnt fair' the most. We categorise materialistic things like shoes and gadgets and fancy cell phones as 'needs', being a student of sociology il tell you the difference between 'needs' and 'wants'.
A need is a basic necessity for survival like food and shelter among others.. but the term want is used to describe the luxuries of life.
Now il put up my very simple question is life really not fair or our wants just unreasonable?
I am no saint myself, i am a just another 18 year old girl whose list of 'wants' ,like i call it, is never ending.
I am not asking you to stop indulging in the luxuries of life, because honestly we can not, as we have been born and brought up in an environment where our parents can afford and so we splurge on their money.
I am just asking you to recognize the blessings of god.. i want you to realise what a wonderful life has been bestowed upon you.. i want all of you to value your life and the
people in it rather than your materlistic possessions, which are just going to sit on your shelves and gather dust after a while.
Count your blessings and thank god every day for the kind of life he has blessed you with, there are millions of others who are just as not as blessed like you are and they will never be.

And even then if you think that life has not been fair to you, then you should think high and rise and carve your own destiny and make your life 'fair' on your terms.
these lines i feel would give an appropriate end to my chain of thoughts..
''Life's battles dont always go..
to the stronger or faster man..
but sooner or later, the man who wins..
is the man who thinks he can''
-anonymous