at the Vijayawada halt..

I was on my way back to college after enjoying a brief vacation at home which i could avail by bunking few days.The train halted at Vijayawada .After having a glass of juice i got back into the train.I was lucky enough to get a seat beside the window. I was peeping outside, waiting for the train to move.

Now something grabs my attention,a small girl of around 4yrs old had a sad look on her face.Few footsteps away was a woman most probably her mother seated on a cement slab , stretching her hands wide open as a gesture of invitation to the child.The child seemed to be a bit angry and afraid too.The woman looked a bit poor.I regretted that i didn't witness what has happened a few minutes ago. Keeping my feeling inside i was waiting for something interesting to happen.Though i had an idea of recording the scene with my cam mobile,i dropped it after getting reminded of its low quality.

A few more footsteps away from the girl was a vendor selling bananas.In the background there were few guys on the platform who looked around 18 ,all wearing t-shirts bearing the words " help us , help the poor ".They might be part of some NGO i thought. They were talking with two women who also looked somewhat poor. I realized that even these two women were carefully observing the actions of the little girl.

The gestures continued from the mother's side but the girl with a frowning face kept her request down by nodding her head sideways.The girl now went slowly towards her mother as we were watching. After a minute she finally lands in her mother's lap, she cries out and hugs her mother as if she is in some pain.I was still trying to relate the contents of the scene i was witnessing, a mother ,small child,vendor,the slogan on the t-shirt, two women, child crying ...

Before i could complete my task i see one more thing happening but this time it gave me some clarity. One of the two women came to the mother and asked her something silently. After patiently listening to the mother with her hands around her shoulders she called one of those t-shirt guys and gave him a ten rupee note and told him something. He went to the vendor, got some bananas and gave them to the child . She ate a banana,and gave a smile of satisfaction as her hunger is now answered.Even i smiled watching the whole thing. I thought of getting down and speaking to the woman as i was inquisitive to know about their organization and work but my train driver didn't give me anymore time. The train departed and i had to be contented with what i had seen.

Two women who looked as poor as the mother , few guys who seemed to be living on the platform , a mother , and a child who was crying out of hunger.Finally i could co-relate everything in the scene.I didn't have enough words then to properly frame a moral of what i had seen and not even now i have,for it had a lot to say .Only one sentence i could say to myself ," what it needs to help people in need is not money and status,it just requires compassion for the fellow beings ".