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| Marine Drive |
The little legs walked on the footpath. Rain poured heavily and the boy was wet. He walked in his dark red shorts. He wore a shirt where only two buttons loosely held the cloth together. The boy held a rope and on the other end of the rope walked his comrade. When human fail to feed a fellow human, animals are the undying support. This kid had as his comrade a monkey. He walked past families with kids staring at him. He occasionally smiled at his friend monkey. He kept on whistling to the monkey which jumped while walking. The maneuver of the monkey drew attention of the children and parents alike. The kid tucked his hand in the pocket and brought out some gram seeds and handed few to the monkey and then both walked. When he reached in front of Hotel Trident both the boy and the monkey stood on the pavement and looked at the colossal rise of human architect. The boy lifted both his hands and rested them on his head and gazed in wonder. The monkey mimicked him. They both started to walk again. Occasionally the kid called out to pedestrians and people at Marine Drive to offer them a Monkey show. Few kids left their parents and followed the little messiah with the monkey maintaining a distance.
Now the time for the show had arrived. Seeing a good number of audience the kid shouted to the monkey, "Chal mere dost shuru ho ja"(Come !my friend, start).
The monkey nodded in negation. The boy went close to it, said something in its ear and lo !!! the somersault and dances began. The monkey was full of energy. It danced to the drum beats of its master. Kids clapped. A girl shrieked out of fear. And many laughed.
When the show was over the monkey took a bowl from the master and went on to collect the money. A man approached and handed a ten rupee note, few kids who had the richness of having some coins with them threw at the monkey. A tiny kid came forward with a chocolate and gave it to the monkey and ran away screaming to his mother. The boy collected the earnings tied it in his handkerchief and put it in his cloth bag. The monkey showed him the chocolate. The boy hugged it with joy. He opened the wrapper and shared it. The monkey jumped to his shoulder and gave a clear indication that it wont walk.
The little kid in dark red shorts with a monkey on his shoulder and a small collection from his audience walked to the other part of the area for new audience and a new show.
There are millions who suffer daily across streets around you. Spare a thought for them. You can find ways to make them smile. A small step is beautiful. Give a smile, a kind word or just a polite look. This will be a small step for a journey towards fighting this social curse of child labor
Mail your suggestions to ling2liang@gmail.com. Your ideas can help change the world, Spare a moment contribute a THOUGHT for a child labor
