Change

All Clara could do at the moment was to stare as the car kept moving towards Anil Uncle. She wanted to scream to the car to stop but all she managed was a whisper. Just then miraculously the car stopped just a few meters away from Anil Uncle’s legs that were shivering with fear. Clara ran down the stairs at a superhuman speed. She politely persuaded the driver to let the matter slide and took Anil Uncle aside.

Clara was even though happy that Uncle Anil was okay, she could not get away from the fact that the person she cared next to her mother, was inches away from death. Clara and her mother were perhaps the few remaining Anglo-Indians in her community. They stayed with Anil Uncle, a sixty-five-year-old man with a heart of gold who was once her father’s colleague. When she tagged along with Anil Uncle for buying groceries the next day, her mind was occupied about the events yesterday. “What were you doing in the open road Anil Uncle?” was the first inquiry she set forth. “Taking a walk” Anil Uncle said with his always ready smile. “Why didn’t you take a walk in the park?” she asked with apprehension. “Have you seen the park?” Anil Uncle replied.

This brought an end to Clara’s investigation. Even after this, she was not satisfied but one look at the park proved Uncle Anil’s innocence. It was a place which was falling apart at its core due to years of negligence. The only other option for him was to take a walk on the dangerous roads which had neither traffic lights, sidewalks nor zebra crossings. As she thought that she saw eight-year-old Anita and her grandmother crossing the street, coughing at the exhaust of a passing car. It was at this moment that an idea popped into Clara’s mind.

The Municipal Commissioner walked briskly to his office. If his attendance would not have been counted, he would have surely skipped. As he neared the building, he saw all the members outside waiting instead of being at their post. He saw one of the members and started screaming at him “Why are all of you not inside the building? Why are all of you here instead?” “Sir...” one of the members tried to speak but the commissioner interrupted him. “What is inside there? Ghosts? Goblins? Spirits?” the commissioner screamed. “No Sir.” one of the security guards said “Senior citizens.”

As the Municipal commissioner walked in, he saw a sight he could have never imagined. Dozens of senior citizens, making rounds at the office floor. He tried to make them leave but to no avail. Just then Anil Uncle stepped in front and said “We have nowhere nice to walk since our park broke down. Thankfully we have this place for our long walks until the park repair starts.” It was the first time in the Commissioner’s tenure, he had faced such a situation.

As Clara sat down at one of the benches of the new park, she gazed at Anil Uncle’s football game. As she turned her head, she saw the newest addition to her community, a traffic light, which many had gathered to see being set up. “Clara, can you pass the ball?” she heard Anil Uncle say. She instinctively passed the ball to them. She wondered how it was really true that we have to make the change, we want to see.

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world "- Mahatma Gandhi