That evening the sky was clear and blue with specks of pink splashed in between. .Having a look at it during her evening walk ritual, Megha was reminded of what her mother used to say years back on seeing these colours above “It is going to pour either today or after sixteen days…..” “Hmmm, there’s a chance of some respite from the sultry weather tomorrow”, Megha , the optimist, said to herself. She loved this time of the day because it was totally ‘hers’ and she rarely missed it despite the soaring temperature these days and all the discomfort it caused. This was the time she could appreciate the nature around in all its majestic beauty – a new bird chirping, a bright coloured flower in a dusty roadside bush or a tree which might have been there always and she didn’t notice. The carefree kids jumping around and the not so carefree teenagers and young adults bogged down by their ‘world’ of tuitions, coaching and other similar this ‘age’ syndromes always caught Megha’s attention. Then there used to be the stark contrast of the silent, in tandem steps of the old couple. This routine never tired or bored her as she was an optimist and she viewed each ‘new’ day with a ‘new’ eye.


It was in one of these walks of hers that she noticed the two rag picker kids. They must have been about eight or nine, but looked much younger for obvious reasons.They were half bent awkwardly over a dry roadside drain about six feet deep. The sight caught Megha’s attention and as she went closer, she saw the bright red polybag which was the ‘apple’ of their eyes. They were trying to retieve it with the concentration of Arjun aiming the eye of the fish. Having the booty of the bright red polybag in their bulging backpack will surely be adding a few grams to the total weight on their shoulders. The money their backpack earns will fetch dinner for the entire family at the end of the day and hence the jostle to add to the bag. Megha was curious and stopped to find out who fished the bright red polybag at the end. Yes, she’d guessed it right! It was the taller boy’s bag it went into, for obvious reasons. Once they were done with the chore, both sat at the edge of the drain to rest for a while – the relaxation after a completed job! It did not matter if the ‘job’ was fishing the bright red polybag from the drain. Megha felt both of them were capable of completing any other job too if they had one….. She visualized them going to school, doing well, getting to college and passing out from there and then doing well at work…. A stray dog’s shrill bark at being shooed away by some bystanders jolted her out of her world. It was then that she realized that all of us have similar dreams for our children but these two rag pickers were not ‘our children’. Perhaps their families did not sleep enough to dream…

It was getting dark and she had to be back home. But she had made up her mind – she would dream for them. Having made this decision, she briskly headed home. The next evening at the same time she reached the same spot but they were not to be seen. She waited till the street lights illuminated the road but the kids did not come….maybe some other drain in the city had more bright red polybags, Megha thought, and headed back home slowly.

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