The Girl with Red Roses..

She stood in front of Hotel Trident with flowers in hand. She walked slowly to the boy standing at the corner of the footpath. She raised her hand and offered him a stalk of rose. It was beautiful. The little tender hands pleaded him to take one. She said out, “Only twenty rupees, Sahib”.  The young lad smiled and refused. The little girl in white frock moved to the other couples watching the beauty of sunset at Marine Drive, Mumbai. She was hopeful that few would pick up the opportunity of using the rose to please their inamorata. She walked barefoot on the baked pavement. She jumped from one couple to another. The child knew the knacks of convincing customers to buy the flowers. After much struggle, she was able to sell one rose. The customer was not a young lively couple who would use it for courting but an old man walking on sticks with a broad smile. He bought it and tapped away on the pavement. The lass was tired of walking. She sat at the corner of the pavement and looked at the horizon. Her eyes were blank. Her lips dry and hair rusty. She took out few crumpled notes and counted the money. She tucked them back in her frock, wiped her face and tied her hairs with a small rubber band. She got up again and walked along the footpath seeing a car approach the parking lot. She met a business failure there too. She walked along the Marine drive with a hope of getting a customer who would buy her flowers before they wither. The lass walked past small boys of her age playing with their dogs. She walked past old couples staring at the stretch of the sea. She walked past a group of young beautiful girls coming. She walked past everything jolly on the side of the sea. All the way, she never gave up hope and asked almost everyone to buy her flowers. She slowly walked out of sight. The joyful ambience of the area never saw the grief on the face of the little child. She was able to manage something from the joys others. The little lass, in white frock, is another example of the millions working on the streets of any country to feed themselves. She represented the cauldron of children working as child laborer. She fought through the reluctant crowd at Marine Drive to pay heed to her small self-dependent work. She is one of the millions of Little Messiahs around the globe.

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