The Sports Shoes
The Sports Shoes
It's been a year now that I am saving money. I am really in love with those sports shoes. It costs 800 RS. I get 1000 monthly working in a grain store for 6 hours. l do loading and unloading of grain sacks. My mother works at a construction site. She is a helper at the site.She helps in moving bricks from one floor to another.
I complete my six hours here and go to the construction site for 3 hours till 7pm in the evening. Those 3 hours helps my mother rest for sometime and adds to her monthly income.
We live in a small slum in Pune. Diwali is going to start from tomorrow and we will also be leaving to our village tomorrow to my uncle's place for my cousin sister's wedding. I have lied to my mother a lot to save money for those shoes. I use to tell my mother about receiving less payment and hide that money for saving. Sometimes I use to give full amount to my mother and sometimes save a bit of it.I feel so guilty about it but I want to wear those shoes in the wedding. Wow!!! how nice I will look in it. White coloured shoes.. that too glittering white. I am dreaming this from about a year now.
Every week twice or thrice I go to that shop. I stand outside the shop for hours watching those shoes. Today is the day. I have the money I am going to the shop to buy it. I am really excited and happy that I will be wearing it in the marriage. I won't be wearing those slippers anymore.
On the way towards that shop there is a highway with a footpath and beyond that footpath there is a small hut. Usually I do notice that hut but today there were three small kids sitting with their mother.Two of those kids were crying and the one was standing quiet.I looked at their mother she was also crying but not that much. She was trying to hide her tears but she constantly failing to do so.There was a bus stop nearby and I decided to go near the bus stop and tried to find what was going on. I went their and sat for a while. I could hear in the background the mother was talking with two of her kids who were crying. She was telling them:
She : I will buy for you two very soon.. dada(elder brother) needs it this time. Listen to me stop crying I will buy for you very soon. I went much closer to them and saw that, the elder brother was holding a pair of shoes in a plastic bag. I understood the whole scenario. As it was Diwali she might have bought the shoes for the elder one and couldn't afford for the other two. I went to their hut and requested the mother.....
Me: aunty can I get some water to drink. I am feeling a lot thirsty.
She went inside and came back with a glass of water. I drank the whole water to the last drop. I thanked aunty for the water and went near her. I removed 800 rs from my pocket and kept it in her palm.
Me: Aunty keep this and buy the same shoes for the remaining two as well. I left from there quickly and never turned back. The mother kept shouting from behind "arey suno... Idhar toh aao.. Kon ho tum??? ( listen, come here who are you?? ) I kept increasing my speed... faster and faster. I never turned back.
I don't know if I will be able to buy those shoes or not but something I bought today was a satisfaction of making a mother and her two kids happy just a day before Diwali.....