That Laugh…..

Walking towards the river Hoogly with sweat flowing along every path of his body on a sunny day in Kolkata, Magadh, the boatman was thinking about his children and wife who would be waiting for their father to bring some food from the day’s earning. As an artist, this river was like his stage. He touched his boat as if it was a masterpiece to him. He took out his oars and rowed the boat in the river for a little while, then sat along the bank wishing for some customers to arrive.

The day was about to end and like most of the days he was only able to earn few rupees. He was just about to take out his boat when he saw two men standing along the bank of the river. One of them was tall, fair in color and had a beard of a very unfamiliar type. The other one was a little short, was wearing a cap and was chewing a gum with a camera in his hand.

”Would you mind rowing us around, we are making a documentary on this place?” the tall one said. .

”20 rupees for two rounds” Magadh raised the price, noticing their fancy clothes.

The two men were not that naive to accept the deal but after some bargaining the deal was set to 4 rounds for 30. They sat in the boat and Magadh started rowing the boat. There was silence for some time until the tall man asked ”How much money do you earn usually in a day?”

Magadh said “Around 50 rupees, sir but why are you interested? Even our government doesn’t care”.

”Just improving my general knowledge” the tall man replied with a little smile.

”What if I give you 2000 rupees just now?” the tall man said looking away from Magadh.

”2000 rupees, you have got a bad sense of humor, sir” Magadh said with a flickering smile on his sad face.

The tall man turned his face towards Magadh and with a loud voice he said “We are from television show ‘Giving Happiness” where we donate money to hard working people to inspire them, to motivate them and to let them know that because of their hard work they deserve this moment of happiness”. Magadh was shocked and had an emotionless face for few seconds. Then, he touched the money with his finger to make himself believe that it was real. His doomed face then had a bright smile which slowly turned into a laugh and what a laugh it was? It was the kind of laugh that gives you pleasure by mere just acknowledgment without even knowing the reason. The tall man asked “How do you feel?” Magadh replied with the words between his laugh “It’s not about the money. It will be gone within a week or two but it’s about making me believe that there are people in this world who still respect our hard work and care about us.”