it wasn’t really the everyday conversation ….. he was unknown someone…. i had not seen before. someone who use to be there but was pretty unnoticed…….

i remember seeing him walking with his daughter on a lonely road shoeless without any bags or food, without any belonging to hold on to, sometimes i use to wonder why hold on to her when you cant even give her a roof on head.  they often passed the cross road opposite my house, often slept on a stairs outside a big store. the security would yell once a while and then their relocation would start again.

it was dark and for 12 noon the area looked dull… suddenly there was an uproar of voices and soon a crowd gathered… no one knew who exactly was yelling and why …. the sounds were very loud and yet everything was muffled but i wondered  how many could actually figure out what was going on ….

i thought i shouldn’t be bothered and was just about to close the window when i saw the little girl being dragged by this huge woman … By the looks of it the woman was pretty well off, she was wearing those gaudy clothes with loads of jewellery that fell off her almost all the time…

all i could see was that the little girl was crying away to glory … asking infact almost begging for forgiveness. the father or the guy with her was no where to be seen. it was then i dont know why i felt i should intervene… so i walked down … by now the crowd was divided into two.. one holding the little girl down and the other…..

i peeked inside the circle and realised it was the guy … the one who use to take er along being beaten up black and blue.. blood running down his nose and mouth, crying of pain and constantly asking to leave the child alone……….

i realised that more or less it had something to do with the woman….. soon the crowd had lost interest in hitting the guy and they had dispersed leaving the guy on the road and the little girl alone…..

the lady was still standing and screaching her lungs out ….. probably wanted to get some more attention or validate her rage… i stood there still …. under my building … watching all this, figuring out what was i suppose to do … walk up and help the known yet the unknown duo or just leave the scene and go back up to my safe corner of the world…

the man by then had managed to get up and check the girl for bodily harm… he took her by hand and pulled himself …. limping away….on now what seemed a very unconcerned road..

a day latter saw the same lady again at the grocery store ………. as loud as always , gossiping more… may be complaining or more so acquiring the validation for yesterdays incident…. the curiosity  got better of me and i asked the lady what had gone wrong… that seemingly un notice duo…managed to do that grabbed them so much attention…. the reason why the guy was made to go through so much hell…..

to which I learnt that the little girl had picked up a piece of raw mango kept for drying for pickle to be made without asking …… so much for a big theft..