Illusion

The old woman turned and smile. I stood there, my head reeling with thoughts, my mind a jigsaw puzzle. My peaceful afternoon had been transformed into a chimera. A dream I couldn’t wake my self from. I will relate to you the reason behind this. It was a hot , Sunday afternoon . Like every week I had decided to spend my afternoon in the old age home near my house. I had been doing this since a year now. Every other Sunday afternoon I spent with old people whose families had abandoned them. They were the grandparents I never had. And maybe I was like a child to them or just a friend. I spent hours listening to their stories. I took something special to eat sometimes. And when I went empty handed, they did not complain . Like small children they received me smilingly. That afternoon , I found my companion sitting under the big banyan tree, in the middle of the garden, knitting. The green grass appeared almost white in the blinding sun. I walked slowly towards the old lady. My steps contemplative. She looked up from her knitting and smiled. She had long Grey hair, neatly oiled and plaited. Her face was not wrinkled and that made her look relatively younger. Her lemon yellow saree fluttered lightly in the afternoon breeze. “Get a chair for yourself child”, she said in a high pitched, nasal voice. I pulled a chair and sat opposite her, waiting for to start talking. She remained quite for five minutes. Then she looked at me through her gold rimmed glasses and remained expressionless. I felt a sudden stab of disquietude in her presence. Her piercing eyes, the silence made me uneasy. I had a sudden urge to get up and run. But I stayed put on my chair, clumsily playing with my sweaty hands. “So tell me about yourself”, her voice startled me but I was relieved that the silence was broken. “I am from Mumbai”, I told her. “Is it? What a pleasant coincidence, I am from Mumbai as well. My son lives there now, with his family.” She became forlorn, thinking about her son. So I changed the topic. “I am an engineering student, studying here in Pune”. “Oh my son also studied engineering from Pune only”, she said, bringing the topic back to her son . Then without asking she started narrating her story. “I belong to a very rich family. We all used to live together in Mumbai, me, my husband and two sons. My elder son studied in Pune and the younger one was with us in Mumbai. He was studying to be a journalist. I was very close to him. One day he didn’t return home, I waited for him all night. In the morning we went to the police. For a whole week they looked for him but I did not loose faith. I was positive that he will return. My family lost hope, the search party was called off. Then after almost a month, his body was found in a slum in Bandra. Nobody knew how he had died. Police came to the conclusion that he had committed suicide. But I still find it hard to believe. I could never get over his death. Me and my husband started aging early. We never went out. Our life had come to an end. Then one day , my husband died in his sleep. My elder son moved in with me and life continued. But soon he married and life changed again. My daughter-in law did not want me in the house. She said I was too interfering. Everyday there were fights in the house . So one day my own son chucked me out. I pleaded with him but he was blind. He drove me here in his car. Its been two years now. No one from my family has come to see me. I have to fend for myself in this age also.” My eyes filled with tears. What a terrible life this old woman had led and still she seemed happy and content. I took her hand in mine, “ Don’t worry aunty. God is there to look after you”, I tried to comfort her somehow. She smiled but not through her eyes. Her eyes remained glassy, hollow. “Can you get me some water”, she said. I got up, glad to be of any help to her. I went to the kitchen but could not find anyone. I looked for a clean glass but there were none. After twenty minutes I was finally able to get a clean glass with drinking water. I carried it to the garden. She was now sitting with her closed eyes, as if exposing her soul to the sunlight. I shook her lightly , to wake her. She opened her eyes and looked at me in a confused way. Then she looked around. “its me aunty, here drink this water”, I said handing her the steel tumbler. She took it , still looking at me suspiciously and drank the water thirstily. “Are you from that NGO who spends time with us old people every Sunday”, she asked, wrinkling her nose slightly. I was surprised , why was she asking strange questions suddenly? “Good you came, come sit with me , I like company some time.” And again without asking she narrated her story, “ You know I have two pretty daughters just like you. They both are married. We are Parsees and my husband doesn’t live with us. Its better to be here than living alone. I quite like it here.”, she smiled warmly. My mind went blank. I thought I was dreaming. Had I imagined all that she had told me only half an hour back? I nervously got up from the chair almost falling on the grass and ran towards the entrance. I looked back for the last time, the old woman turned and smiled.

Kindness

Right out of journalism school, I had started working for an English daily in Bangalore. Few months into my job, I decided it was time to take a break. Few of my college friends were going to Kolkata, so i planned to join them. It so happened that the day I was to leave, my parents had to go to Mumbai. So with much difficulty I woke up for my early morning flight and somehow managed to reach the airport without my mother's assistance. I reached just in time for the check in and totally forgot about eating breakfast. I had taken one of those flights which do not serve breakfast. The flight had a stop over so it was a pretty long journey. I instantly went of to sleep. I woke up to the voice of the air hostess asking me whether I wanted to order for food. I realized how hungry i was. I asked the air hostess what was on their menu. She smiled, "Sandwiches", she said. I asked her to give me one. As i opened my wallet to remove money, to my embarrassment I saw that I had only Rs 10 in my wallet. I had completely forgotten to pick up cash. I looked at her and asked, “Do you accept cards?” She answered in the negative. I put my wallet into my bag and said, “Oh let it be”. There were still two hours to go. And i had to do without food. The air hostess came back after two minutes and said, “ Are you a vegetarian or a non vegetarian?” I was surprised. Not to embarrass my self further, I literally whispered, “ You don’t understand but i have no money”. She asked me again, “Vegetarian or non-vegetarian?” I thought maybe she was hard of hearing, so i simply said, “Vegetarian”. I was just cooking an answer in my mind when she came back again, with a sandwich in one hand. She gave it to me. I got angry. Was she deliberately trying to embarrass me? How many times should i tell her i have no money? Very politely I said again, “Look i have no money to give you, so i don’t want the sandwich.” She smiled. Placing the sandwich in my hand she said, “ Its ok , don’t pay me . It's our little secret”. I stared as she walked away. I ate the sandwich hungrily and then drifted off in a deep peaceful sleep. I don’t know the name of the air hostess but i know that people like her make the world a better place.