She took out a five rupee coin and put it in the first pocket of her handbag, getting down the bus. She would need it for the next time she goes up to the little gramin sewa cars to move a few kilometers ahead for college.
It was getting late, as she pulled her scarf closer to cover her head and ears, and from beneath the layers of clothing protecting her wrist, she took out the watch to read the time. It was getting late, and if the next bus didn't arrive soon, she would be late for classes. It was just an hour before her class would start. She started getting worried.
She looked over, her surroundings, noticing the people's clothing in the bitter winter of Delhi- few clad in fur, few in puffy jackets, while the older women would take shawls, and cardigans.
Out from a distance, few small children were running about the busy road, throwing things at each other. They seemed to be scantily clad in dresses, and the youngest among the crowd- merely about 4-5 year old. They seemed the least disturbed b the bitter chilling Friday Morning. The holes in their tattered clothes would pass the bitterness to her body, as she kept on looking at them, with eyes feeling so more, yet unable to express. She was caught up in a situation where she felt the most helpless in the whole world.
The bus finally arrived. She diverted her mind to board it, taking out a ten rupee note from her handdbag to give it to the conductor, when someone pulled her jeans from the back. She looked behind to see one of the little boy, with his hands folded, begging for the money she had in her hand. She looked at him, and then towards her now-empty handbag. The door shut in front of her, and the bus started on its journey.
She sat in a spare seat, inside the cozy warmth of the bus, reflecting about the poor boy, and his parents who didn't give it a thought about an innocent's life- who knew of nothing to earn, but to beg.
The boy perhaps didn't even understand what he was asking for, as he returned to play with his buddies, least disturbed by what had happened.
