one a penny

Today, as I was browsing through the city markets, I saw a small kid, a 5 year old child sitting alongside a weighing machine. I thought 'let me get my weight checked' . There was a lady, with her daughter in tow, who was standing on the weighing machine. Both the mother and daughter had a view of their mass into gravity values. and......when the kid asked for two bucks, the lady said that the weighing machine was incorrect, the scales were wrong. The little child, I was amazed to see, tried to adjust the needle of this instrument, brought it to the zero mark and asked the lady to try the machine again. Her daughter pleaded her mother to pay the child. But that female refused to pay the money....two rupees to be precise and just trotted off.
I stood on the machine.....I think the weight was accurate....its been the same for years. Hope to gain some weight someday! Anyways before I digress from the story, I paid the child two bucks, he wanted to pay me back 'one penny'. When I said, never mind, the smile that I saw on his face was incomparable to anything else. I thought what would that little child do with one extra rupree,,,,,but more important what would that affluent looking lady do with that 'one penny'. It is difficult fo me to understand.I suppose it's quite an ardent task to understand or justify this kind of ridiculous and obnoxious behaviour.
I'm sure this lady wouldn't mind paying 50 bucks for a coffee in a coffee shop. Maybe she was saving for the same!

an old aquaintance

This weekend I was on my usual city darshan spree. Walking with the evening breeze is a soothing experience in the North Indian summer courtesy proximity of Chandigarh to the hills. My favourite is the city lake where I tend to go again and again, am never tired of the waters. People walking, jogging, just rushing past you...somehow all this kind of fascinates me. I saw a very old couple there, must be in their late 70's walking hand in hand. They looked beautiful and I could not get my eyes off them. The old gentleman just like any other teenager bought something to eat for his lady. I thought that I had seen them somewhere before.... kept thinking about them. While driving my way back home, their charming faces kept coming back to me. Thankfully, my neurons didn't let me down! I had spotted them about ten years back, when I was a school going kid and had gone for a haircut to a salon. This septuagenarian had accompanied the lady to the parlour. She also had a haircut (much better than mine!), her husband looked at her admiringly and said that she looked good with the new hairstyle. At that time, I thought what a hep couple....this time i said.....what a blessed couple. May God bless them! Amen.