Unconcerned Middle-class !!

"Could you please provide us with some space to sit ?"

"Sorry old man! I am, myself not able to properly sit on this seat."- replied a man , who was comfortably sitting on the corner seat. 

The old man's sunken eyes were unable to find any place to sit. Finally , he decided to sit on the floor with his son. I don't know why , but his cracked  wavery voice caught my attention. While the old man was adjusting his little luggage , his son was just staring at him as if he wasn't knowing what his father was doing . Suddenly , from no where a women entered the train compartment and began investigating if the old man and his son were settled or not. I was a bit amazed while she was talking to his son , who was in his mid twenties, in some kind of sign language and with mixture of some words. Later , I configured out that the boy was intellectually disabled i.e.mentally retarded. I felt quite sympathetic for the boy and of course for the old man. Nevertheless the train , with a jolt , started moving. The women who appeared overwhelmed in-front of old man and his son , bade good bye to both and left. While she was leaving , I noticed her moistened eyes which she tried to hide from both and she even succeeded. After such a huge annoying disturbance , I finally observed some rest in the air.

The old man , preoccupied in his place kept observing the compartment and the people around him as if he was travelling for the first time. With his clothes, anyone can predict that he might belong to not so rich lower middle class family . His son appeared very much curious about the things happening around and got his doubt resolved by his father in some sign language. For the time being they both became the center of attraction among the people present there.

Beggars are part and parcel of the Indian Railways. It was nothing new , that I was seeing there at that moment but still there was something which made me feel ashamed . Usually ,we , the middle class people , as and when observe a beggar approaching us, we get busy watching outside the window or get occupied with some other things , that most of the people were doing at that time.But, unlike all other people, that old man took out coins from his pocket ,which was all that he had with him as his entire wealth, and gave one of the coin to the beggar.

That was the time that made me to realize that with increasing literacy and living standards their is an exponential decrease in An Ideal Human behavior and cause is still unknown to me . We , with the time , are becoming more selfish and becoming feeling less for other people .   

With the next halt , I arrived at my station and left my train.


courtesy: Daksh Shrotriya