Nonentity

Integrity

The rains had come and gone. Sewers overflowed strewing garbage along the tarry roads while the traffic came to a standstill, the grinding life of the city ceased. The weather was cold, people seldom ventured out save for essential commodities. The queue at the ration-shop was the like a coiled never-ending line and beside the crowd was a small kid hardly twelve with a small packet in his hand, staring blankly as the queue moved on, his eyes were riveted on the shop. He hardly spoke a word, but his tattered, oversized dress labelled his poverty. A few looked at him with contempt, some swore but he stood stock-still, like a rock, full of determination. The crowds thinned, the streets gradually became empty yet he stood his ground. He went to the shopkeeper and asked politely “Saheb my remaining paise” he had been waiting for the man to get his balance. The man replied “No change, come tomorrow”. The boy looked up in despair “But, but.. Saheb, I saw change the last customer gave….”. “You bloody son of a bitch, teaching me my business?” he lashed out at the boy; he fell on the wet bog, full of slime and grime. He got up slowly and walked up to the man and stared at him. With a swift movement he snatched the knife on the table and pointed it at the shopkeeper and said “My money…” the terrified owner handed him the change, cursing and muttering, the boy looked at him with pity and spat at him. He walked away.

A wind blew and rupees flew out of the open drawer, the man scurried to gather them… I stood transfixed, a melancholy swept over me. The man swore “Ruffian, bastard, baby faced villains, should lock up such anti social elements”. Touched, I was, but I couldn’t help thinking did he really deserve this ill-treatment? Was it his fault to be an upright lowborn than be a spineless fool? The assembled crowd looked with forced admiration, dispersed in silence. Did it help the cause or was it the embodiment of the silent spectator who lives and yearns for the life that was fairly granted to him as to any other? The silence hung like a heavy pall broken by the ripples of falling rain, I was left wondering why did he not rob the man for all the troubles he underwent? Truly he deserved compensation. Later only did it dawn on me that it was his integrity that made him a human among the crowd of zombies….