just took a walk through the streets. everybody is happy, at least for some time. kids playing with each other.. laughing.
a rich kid came with his father n bought a lot of crackers, n at the corner of that bent street, i saw another kid holdin hand of his mother, a widow with not much money, looking at that cracker's stall.
n then somethin took hold of my mind.
a boy in our college canteen.. merely of 12 years old. after loosing his father, he left school. came to mumbai from some village. Satyam, yes thats his name. when i talked to him last year, i somehow felt the deepness of his voice, lost innocence. it still drills me.
when i see firecrackers. im unable to see the light n sound they make, i always find myself thinkin bout the tiny hands that made them, n the smoke trail it leaves behind...

2 comments:

  1. crackers are a waste of money anyways. but then theres a paradox when u say that only children are involved in makin crackers.
    we may think that we are motivating child labour, but seen from many child labourers perspective, these crackers are what gets them food on the table everyday.
    another case of `there's no wrong or right to this` scenario

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  2. yes... u r absolutely right. n somehow thats the saddest part of it.

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