120 seconds

When my auto had stopped at the traffic signal, I looked at the timer. It showed 120 seconds. Damn! I cursed myself once again for being late for the seminar. My thoughts were fleeting between the seminar, the presentation and the time left with me to reach there. At times, my random thoughts were interrupted by horns, blown by vehicles rushing to the two side roads connected to the junction. I get increasingly irritated when people blow horns at the traffic signals. I looked at the timer again.

It showed 110 seconds...

I looked out of my autorickshaw. In the nearby vehicles, i could see people listening to music, talking over phones and browsing through magazines. All of them seemed to be mesmerized in a world of their own. Be it air-conditioned cars or two wheelers, people are occupied with their own thoughts. All of us have different destinations. As soon as that green light glows, we will all be rushing to our respective destinations. Just 120 seconds of togetherness.

90 seconds...

It was then I saw him. He was standing there with an intriguing face. We glanced at each other. There was something in his innocent eyes which held my glance for a longer time. He smiled at me, that too a very cute one and I found myself smiling back at him.

80 seconds...
He was wearing a torn shirt and dirty trousers. He couldn't be more than five years old. He was standing a few feet away from the road. He checked whether all the commuters are noticing him or not. Then as if to draw everybody's attention, he blew out a whistle. He was joined by another boy who looked one or two years older than him. They had a ring, a metal can and a stick with their hands.

60 seconds...
He held a ring up. Putting the ring through his head, he gyrated it at his hips a couple of times and let it fall off his body. He together with the other boy bend their bodies into a perfect circle and started rotating with the ring. The perfect synchronisation between the boys made the whole act to look like a rotating ball. The fact that they were doing all of this under blazing sun and the sheer innocence of their faces made my heart weep. With a few more somersaults, they stopped their act.

30 seconds...
Both of them started moving from one vehicle to another, with metal cups in their hands. They knocked at car windows and waited near some passengers hoping that they would be kind enough. While some of the passengers handed over a couple of coins, some blatantly ignored them. Some seemed to be too occupied in their conversations over their mobile phones. How mobile phone helps us to ignore those we want to, was quite visible for me that day. Some were even ready to get rid of them by scolding them.

10 seconds...
He came closer to the rickshaw in which i was sitting. He held out his can for me. I wanted to tell him something, but my inability to express myself in a language which he will understand, kept my lips seated. But i think my eyes conveyed something and he smiled at me once again. I didn't know whether the money i was giving him, finally went to someone else's pocket or not. Yet while putting a handful of coins into his can, I wished he could eat atleast one meal of the day to his heart's content. I could hear the groaning sound of the engine and my rickshaw rushed past the signal. But those 120 seconds lingered in my thoughts for a longer time.