What is the cost of a BMW X1 in India?
What is the cost of a flower bouquet on a traffic signal in Mumbai?
I don’t know the cost of both but they did relate on a Sunday evening.
Amu and I were travelling to the movies when our car stopped at the traffic signal. A BMW X1 had been travelling the same road with us. Two small girls not more that 5 years of age were with their head out through the sun roof watching the traffic and the world around them.
We watched the car as we hoped there must be someone down there in the car helping the girls stand and put their heads out in the roof.
At the third signal from our home, our rickshaw stood parallel to the X1. The girls glanced at our rickshaw. Amu looked out and smiled at the girl. But it wasn’t enough for the girls. They wanted to know who was sitting to the woman who smiled at them. They tilted their heads, they bent down, they twisted and they turned to catch the face of the person sitting next to the woman who waved at them.
Amu smiled, looked at me and said “They are very curious. They have seen me but want to see who is sitting next to me.”
As our rickshaw waited at the traffic signal, a boy came up to sell a bouquet of yellow flowers. The only time I gave flowers to Amu was this year on Valentine and now was not the time.
The boy looked at us hoping that I would buy flowers for the lady sitting next to me who was intently watching the girls on the BMW. He looked at the girls and then back at us before concluding that I was not buying his bouquet.
He quickly moved to the next vehicle in the line. I meanwhile peeped to see the girls and give them a wave. The girls smiled.
As the signal turned green, the X1 darted in front, its superior engine easily eclipsing out rickshaw.
That’s when I realized
Its the case of two childhood. Both curious. One comfortable enough to be curious about the world around. Curious enough to see each and every person in other cars and the other childhood, not privilege enough, curious to know when the next opportunity will come. Curious to know when someone will buy the bouquet so that he can earn his daily meal.
A huge gap of haves and have-nots. As for me, I still don’t know the price of a BMW X1
