Two contrasting incidents

Sometimes what we see for a few seconds stays in our minds longer than those we have been perceiving for years!! I shall now recount a couple of such instances that have stayed on in my mind longer than i hoped it would be.
I was returning home from college the other day. It was 11.30 in the morning. The heat was unrelenting. Never before have i experienced a hotter September. And peculiarly both these incidents took place within a span of say two minutes. The first one was extremely cute. I saw two young kids, not more than eight years old, looking at something through a grilled gate with a gleam of joy in their eyes and the ever lovely curvy feature on their lips :) . And all of a sudden one kid put his hand through the gate. All this while i was unable to view what was that on the other side that aroused their interest. When i moved nearer i found out that the two kids were patting a dog and feeding it biscuits. Something else caught my attention - three words written in bold "BEWARE OF DOGS". The sweet innocence of those kids brought the same curvy feature on my lips too :) . Then i realized how i longed to go back in time and lead a life of innocence, where my biggest fear would have been what my teacher would do if i forgot to complete my homework or my biggest aim was to score better than my benchmate in class tests! My face glitters with the same curvy feature as i think those days :) .

The second incident shook me to the extent that i was furious on the nation for a few moments after i witnessed that. As i said i was walking with the arc that my buccinator and orbicularis oris formed. There was a this "thud thud thud" sound coming all around me. And it was like the cement road beneath me was being beaten with a sledge hammer. And then i saw something that i'm sure will remain imprinted in my mind for the rest of my life. On top of a 25-foot long wooden pole that was four or five as thick as a tubelight would be was a man wearing nothing but a towel that covered only one and a half feet of his body below his waist. He was completely covered with a thick liquid. God knows if it was oil or it was his sweat. The pole had a one foot stand like a plank some 20 feet above the ground where the guy stood. Now what was he doing up there? He was travelling, hopping from on place to another with the stick. I hope all you readers understand how tough it would be to travel in such a fashion and more than that one has to just try imagining how he might have climbed on that pole of his and taken the initial few steps? What happens when he's moving and a car or a bus or some other vehicle blocks his way? How will he step aside and balance himself on that pole when such a vehicle hinders his path of travel?On top of it all the question that must have immediately jumped up in your mind is What is he doing this for? The answer is the one we are all search of - "MONEY". His wife was walking alongside him on foot with a plate that looked more batttered compared to an 80 over old cricket ball and asking the other passers by for money. Do not forget that the heat that day was bludgeoning. I was deeply hurt seeing the extent to which poverty drives people to be so cruel on themselves. All for the one meal they need for the day and perhaps for their children too. Who is to blame for all this? I cursed the nation not knowing what to do. I do not understand what can be done to eradicate destitution from the face of the earth. But I hope I shall one day get an opportunity to be one of those who has helped expurgating the world of this filth!!