Beggar's Blessing

They stood near a bike outside their favourite coffee shop. She leaned on his bike resting her huge white bag on the seat. Her gaze was fixed on his face, while he seemed restless, not looking at her at all. He kept on staring at a distance on the road as if counting the vehicles passing by. Both of them hardly said anything.

A scrawny woman with a child in her hand approached them. ‘Please give me something. I haven’t eaten since yesterday. I need to feed him too’ – she said pointing at her child. Both of them looked at her and then towards each other. They remembered something though none said a word. ‘Please give me something. Atleast buy me one wadapaav from that stall’ she pointed at the nearby stall.

Neha opened her bag and searched for her purse. She never did something like this before. Earlier, whenever any beggar approached them, it was he who got generous and handed such beggars more than the beggar would have expected. Today, she saw that he hadn’t budged. She opened her purse and found a few notes and coins. Carefully, she plucked a hundred rupee note from her purse and handed it to the beggar. The beggar was surprised at the generosity. Even Shaurya looked at her differently. After all, he knew her too well.

‘God bless you, child. May all your dreams come true. May both of you always be together. May you both always live happily together’, said the woman showering all her blessings on them. A faint smile spread over Neha’s face. She could feel tears welling up her eyes. ‘You got the money, now go. Don’t say unnecessary things’, she heard Shaurya shouting at the woman. The woman walked away thanking Neha.

Neha’s tears left the confines of her eyes rushing over her cheeks. Shaurya saw them too but chose to look away. Her teary eyes were still fixed on his face. ‘I think I should make a move. I am getting late. Do you want me to drop you somewhere or you would be fine without me?’ said Shaurya.

‘I will go myself’ she replied. Shaurya asked her to move a little bit and take her bag, started his bike and sped off saying goodbye.

She kept on looking at him till he was visible in the traffic. The enormity of his last few words hit her now. How would she be fine without him? How odd of that woman to have blessed them togetherness on the day they were breaking up. She knew that she had purposely given the beggar more money because they always blessed in the same manner. Always. And more than today, she had never hoped for a beggar’s blessings to come true.

This post is written as a part of April A to Z Challenge 2014 under Non-Themed category. I am doing two posts for this Challenge and Themed posts can be found here.