Defer not small acts of kindness (794)

 

Madhav Ji as he is known is a rich man owning a coal and coke company and presently leading a peaceful life after handing over the business to his sons. A kindly old man he spent his time reading spiritual books, visiting temples and attending religious lectures. His palatial house overlooked a large municipal park situated in sylvan surroundings.

This park with its best-laid pathways for the morning walkers drew a large crowd daily both mornings and evenings. One could see joggers running, old men and women walking briskly, yoga sessions on green spots, children playing in the playing area on the slides and swings and young romantic couples hiding in secluded spots under the trees watching the ducks swimming in the large pond in the centre. Vendors were seen busy selling to the young and old jal mudi, gol goppas, alu tikias, ice creams of different brands and fluffy sugar candies in pink colour.

Madhav Ji invariably spent Sunday evenings at the park watching the people and the playing children. The children all well-dressed from well-to-do families flocked to the ice cream vendors and were busy buying cones and cups of ice cream in different colours and tastes. What saddened Madhav Ji was the sight of ill-clad poor children in tatters watching with drooling mouths from afar the rich kids licking the cones and slurping from the cups. The hapless kids did not approach the vendors but kept staring hungrily at the fortunate children with mouths open. Madhav Ji had not forgotten his early childhood days in poverty with his mom working in different households to make a living.

It was perhaps the first Sunday he had visited the park. What he saw disturbed him and when he found he had not brought any money with him, it upset him further that he left the park abruptly.

The next Sunday Madhav Ji was seen sitting in his usual place. Not yonder from him stood one man with a tall stool with large cubes of ice covered by a gunny bag and a carpenter tool like planer on the stool to shred the ice cubes. Mounted on his stool was an array of bottles with coloured sugar syrups in red, yellow and green and in different fragrances like rose, sarsaparilla, lemon, and orange.

Little away was the ice cream vendor ringing the bell to attract the children. Soon the rich children gathered around him buying and having cones and cups of ice cream,

 Madhav ji invited the poor children to come near him and asked them to have one or two as they desired of ice cream made of raw ice from the man by his side. The glee in the children’s faces, looking at the man shredding the ice, fixing it over a stick and pouring coloured syrups of their choice, should be seen to be believed. Their joy multiplied when their demands for repeated helpings of sugary syrups were willingly met by the man. Madhav Ji was a picture of contentment when he saw these kids were no longer eyeing the affluent children on the other side. Satisfied at the unexpected treat, they all gave him a shy smile before scampering.

This became a hardy Sunday ritual with the number of kids growing and Madhav Ji did not mind. He surprised them frequently gifting them T-shirts, school bags, water bottles, packets of biscuits or some such stuff. Though he did not talk to them much, the poor children looked upon their benefactor with fondness and awe.

 It was one Sunday evening Madhav Ji had not turned up. The children were all eagerly waiting for his arrival. One of the kids ran across the road to his palatial bungalow and saw a huge crowd of people and an array of cars coming one after the other and stopping opposite the house. Promptly the other children also gathered and stood at a safe distance watching the movements. They came to know from a security guard who was shooing them away that the old man had died of a sudden cardiac arrest in the afternoon.

The body was kept in the hall for the stream of distinguished visitors and relatives to file past. It was time to leave for the crematorium. The eldest son of Madhav Ji who knew his dad’s fondness for the poor children and his Sunday trysts with them asked the security to send them in to have one last look at their patron.

It was a measure of Madhav Ji’s compassion when the visitors saw a huge retinue of poorly dressed children walking past the body in tears and uncontrollable sobs.

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson