New Delhi: The one you were annoyed with when he refused to stop as you hailed him.
You didn’t care to ask if I was rushing home to feed my ageing mother, or pick up my child from school, or, perhaps, trying to catch my prayer.
I was, like all my other khakhi-clad comrades, just another slave to serve you.
So be it!
But, ’tis two months since I’ve picked up a passenger.
Yes, 60 days since I’ve earned a rupee.
Those working from home, and those reclining on savings;
Those who had the money to stock their kitchens and their living room bar counters;
Those who never had to pawn their brass vessels to buy medicines;
Those whose fixed deposits and kin abroad kept them funded
What will these know what hunger pangs mean; that a sick child’s medicine can dry up a whole week’s earning;
What will these know what it means to swallow one’s dignity to ask a little help from a better-off relative;
Did you care to hail my plight; to let go your ego for a while, and help me hold on my dignity.
A simple meal, a simple hello, an anonymous gift of cash to help me tide over.
Is it asking for too much from those who have; from those who can spare; from those who learnt more than me on virtues of charity?
Agreed I am not as well read, as cultured; and, perhaps, a bit ill-clad.
Yes! I’m being vocal, ’cause my PM said, I could since I’m local!
Khalid Noor Mohammed (Linkedin) 