World at odds (WAO)

This friday i reached the multiplex some one n a half earlier than the movie show, while the friend accompanying me went to a store to get some photos clicked, i started wandering purposeless in the upmarket area, as i went past a building under construction i saw a huge cage lit by two bulbs under the building's staircase selling birds...They were sparrows in all colors..Brilliant shades of color which only the nature can paint, shades of white sprinkled with droplets of blue, red and green..I forgot where i was for a second, when i came back from the initial awe i realised i was in the same market where i come every second day, may be i was too blind to see them or perhaps they were put up here this very day...such marvels of nature and caged ?? I should get all of them freed said the social worker in me, I called up the man selling them..What is the cost of each ?? three hundred for a pair he told...There were atleast 20 such pairs, I checked my wallet, 600 bucks in cash..shall i get two pairs freed-up and leave the rest..That would be worse since the rest of the pairs in cage would see the freed ones flying away and they will curse me...I must find an ATM i thought...such beautiful birds on sale ?? Life cant be on-sale..nobody shall trade living creatures before my eyes...The social worker in me had assumed unrelenting proportions now...I headed for the ATM two blocks away..On my way i saw a man who had parked his black honda accord beating up the parking guard since he didnt want to pay the Rs. 10 parking-lot charges..He held him by his collor and in the process the poor guard's shirt tore off..Perhaps the only shirt he had..I clinched both my fists in anger...I wanted to buy-out that car owner for the sake of poor man guarding the parking..What cld be the price tag on him..Perhaps a few crores...then a call center cab went past me..There were youngsters in it..All of them were leaning against each other, few of them asleep, worn off by their mundane job...I wanted to free them too, what cld be the price tag on 7 young lives sapped by their work-life...The entire place looked eerie..I could see a price tag on every soul going past my eyes..My ATM card suddenly looked useless...Am i on sale too ?? I walked away from the place not once looking in the glass windows of the shops by the side..else i wld have definitely seen my own price tag..I never returned to the birds waiting for me in the cage..I was not to be their messiah, am their culprit and am ashamed of it..Perhaps am a coward...As always the socialist in me was defeated by philosopher in me who is little too well aware of the stark-realities of the daily life..But one day I will come back and free them all...

Labels: Blanks, Manthan