Muskaan

In a land where we celebrate stories, here comes another.
Enter Muskaan and her treacherous train of life.
Yes, we know each other from before and so I know how her family of five exchanges sweat-dripped bricks and cement for the hope of a life.
 
As her dusty trail crosses mine, perhaps even the thought of pausing at my sight did not  zip through her mind despite that click of the shutter for she knows she has other stations to stop at. Stations that remind her of who she is and isn’t. Stations where she doesn’t belong but is forced to believe that she does.
 
I wonder what she thinks at night while having supper with the same stale bread she had in the morning, and when she plays with old discarded toys, and when she sees kids her age jump into school busses while she into that heap of dust to help her family make ends meet.
 
And while I try to fathom all this and put myself into her torn slippers wondering what she feels seeing me see her take bread back home in this wee hour of the morning while I am still trying to wake up, she swishes past me like cold breeze leaving behind an aching linger down my spine. 

​

#HumansofLucknow