I had my hands on my new digicam. I was more than happy. I wanted to click frantically. I wanted to capture it all. Every nook and corner of my city can come up with a new story today. And I, with my brand new camera, wanted to arrest them - all the moments, all the stories, all the life around.
I went out to hit the street. Feeling like a predator, I was cruelly searching for that one perfect frame. Where to find it? I looked up the streets, the narrow bylanes, the parks, the cafes. I was confused, sometimes perplexed. Will I ever be able to find it? A photograph of my choice? A one I can boast of? The one which I can treasure for ever?
There it was - in a roadside pavement. I saw a little street child playing with a street dog. The child was a boy, hardly five or six years old. He was wearing a torn, rugged, dirty shirt. And yes, only the shirt. He had no pants. His mom was begging at a distance. Her empty beggar's bowl matched her empty stare fixed at the horizon. However, the child was happy. He was happy to find a playmate in the streetdog. Maybe, the dog made him forget hunger. All of a sudden, I got the frame I was searching for. The child and the dog sat side-by-side. The child smiled silently and looked at the dog. The dog also looked upto him and seemed to be smiling! They both just sat there, silently, looking at each other's eyes. I could never find a better frame.
I was about to click, but could not focus. Something happened to me. A wave of pain and sadness started flowing through my whole body. My hands started shaking like the branches of a tree in a storm. Tears flooded out of my eyes. What am I trying to do here? Selling poverty? Capturing the private moments of a boy and his pet, just beacuse they live on the street? Why on the world should I do that?
No, I did not take that photograph. But as long as they smiled at each other, I kept looking at them. I saw them to my heart's content. And I looked up to thank the greatest Creator up above. Thanks for making me a human being. Thanks for giving me emotions. Thanks for letting me surpass all my greed, and all my want, with all the goodness in my heart.
Dear God, thanks for letting me experience this wonderful scene.
