One of the greatest things I like about my work place,my team in particular is the fact that all of us are youngsters,either in the mid 20's or late 20's,nothing beyond that.Though we have a lot of internal conflicts,somehow I still can relate myself to atleast a few of them.We have a daily routine in our office which we follow without fail everyday morning unless there is some data crunching and ass firing meetings!!!

As usual,after the initial round of vicious circle in the office,we all were on our way to the nearest food outlet to grab our breakfast.We had our regulars,a smoke and was on our way back when I came across an old lady who could hardly walk carrying a bag which looked soo heavy for her. The initial dilemma which crops up in my mind when i see someone like her is whether to help or not,if at all i help,will that be a gesture or an insult for her etc etc.Before i could figure out something,one of my colleugues gave her a hand and took the not so heavy bag from her.He took her to one of the apartments as per her instructions.I was a mere onlooker to all this feeling a lot of respect to my colleugue and a lot of disgrace to her care takers who left her alone in the streets,if at all there is some one like that.

The whole scene took my memories to something which happened more than a year back when I was at Hyderabad.I was staying in an apartment all alone,going through a hell of a time,addicted to booze,dope and a huge debt that a 23 year old could never think off.All this made me completely cut off from my acquaintences and I was literally floating in my own world.Keeping aside all that,what I am trying to put up is about an old man who used to spend his time in the verandah below my apartment.He was around 80 years old,his legs were swollen and rotten,suffering from elephantasis and spend his day and night at the same place ironing clothes for the days'bread.I always wondered how he could manage to lift the heavy iron box and i used to over pay him every time i give my clothes.At times I used to see an old lady and a middle aged man coming and giving him lunch and helping him out to deliver the clothes.Though i've never spoken to him,we shared a chemistry which later on made me do some thing which i can never forget in my life.

With the onset of monsoon,his life became more miserable as he could not sleep anymore in the wet verandah.But,he managed to adjust at the same place with some polythene covers and blankets to beat the cold and rains.Its a pathetic scene and there are numerous times when i wanted to do something for him,but felt helpless.In between,i met with a serious accident and was down for a week,succumbed myself within the four walls.Days passed by,myself adjusting with the food delivered at door and the regular shots of alcohol.I was feeling better and was getting ready to join work the subsequent week.But as usual,rains did a major havoc to AP and it was continuously pouring,flooding a major part of the area I was staying.It was then I thought of the oldie once again and I went down in the rains to see his condition.The scene which I saw over there was pathetic. He was a mere dead body,fully drenched and a few people to stare at it as if they were waiting to see it getting decayed. I lost my temper and started blasting at the onlookers making no difference to the scene. Somehow i covered his body with a curtain clothe and tried contacting the public ambulance numbers. The fact that the area was flooded made things worse and I was a mere watch man to his body in the heavy rains for the next two hours. After almost 3hours,an ambulance managed to come and they took away his body to the electric crematorium. Its still a mystery if they took him to the crematorium as I always believed unnatural deaths of anonymous people in the streets has to undergo a post mortem before being cremated.At the same time,i was not ready to take the head ache of being with the body until things were done and he was cremated with due respect.

Yes,it was a "head ache" indeed. And i am sure its a headache for many others around me.At least i am glad that i could do something to someone whose name and where abouts are still unknown.

Things were back to square one for me though this incident was really disturbing me a lot. Whenever i passed by the verandah,I feel bad for not giving him the complete respect,atleast as an old man.After all,he too is some one's dad,brother,husband or grand pa.

I regret now for being a privileged lot, for spoiling myself in the luxuries of life, confused between neccessities & luxury and portraying the issues we face as the worst anyone would face.

"when you face an issue in your life,open your eyes and see around. Then you will realise how lucky you are"