Imperceptible

 

                                                                “Imperceptible”

                                                     

I was sitting in my car. My whole family was still inside the temple, paying their respects to the gods inside. Music was playing on the radio, nice Bollywood music from the 60’s, soothing to the ears, perfectly accompanying the atmosphere the heater had made. My head laid against the window as I looked out and saw the mist from my breath fade off the window. I saw a homeless man behind the mist.

He had crutches and only one leg. He wore a leather jacket and jeans. His jeans looked too thin for cold and his jacket too short, the bottom of his belly visible. He was wearing a dirty old beanie.  I shivered and tucked my hands into my sleeves. I noticed the man did not shiver. He stood on the side of the road as cars whizzed by blowing him with dust and gusts of air. His jacket flew but he did not shiver, not once.

He had been staring away from me at the temple right behind my car. Unlike other homeless people I had ever encountered he did not come towards the window and asked for money. I sat there ready to refuse him away, just like my parents had taught me. Do not interact with beggars; my parents always told me but how could I send him away if he did not even look my way.

I looked at that man with all my focus and I wondered how he had gotten there. I wanted to know how he lost his leg, what had happened. Was he born without one or did he lose it later in life? Does not matter, where did he get those crutches, surely that means he had the money to buy them? All these questions whizzed around in my head.

I wanted to sit down with him over dinner maybe, he could eat, and I could listen to his story. I could get some cash from my dad to feed him a single meal, he would surely be ready to eat a meal, god knows he needs a hearty one. I wanted to hear his story so badly.

My dad knocked on the window on the other side. I reached over and rolled it down.

“Hey beta we met some friends of ours, it is going to take us some time as your mom has fallen into a deep conversation with them, I got these samosas, do you want one?”

“No, I don’t like the halwai you brought these from.”, I replied with no tone.

“All right.” My dad saw the homeless man. “Oh my, look at that him, should I buy him some food?”

“Yeah, do it.”

“I am going to buy him some samosas.”

“Okay.”

A couple minutes later my dad got a bag of samosas to give to the man. As he saw my dad coming towards him, he hopped on his one leg, running almost. My dad handed him the bag and the man thanked him very enthusiastically. He smiled at my dad as my dad went back to join the conversation with his friends.

The man moved as fast as he could to a nearby tree and sat very carefully down on the cold floor, keeping his crutches beside him. He took out a samosa and inhaled it in a few bites, he ate two more just like that.

He looked up at me and for a moment our eyes met. His eyes were so beautiful, they were light brown like that of coffee and they were a bit teary. I could not breathe, why were they so beautiful? I had seen more beautiful people but what was it about him? My family entered the car.

“Sorry it took us a little long”, my mom said.

“It is okay.”

“Mom can we get pizza today?” My brother asked.

“Sure, we will get it on the way home.”

*

We reached home. We kept away our things and got plates for the pizza. We all sat down on the dinner table. My dad turned on the tv and asked, “What do you want to watch on Netflix?”