Deepak Kapur

Kindness

There was no fire in his house. No fire meant no food. His lips were busy in a silent, quivering prayer. Simultaneously, his heart, from its very core, was cursing the public distribution system.

He had been four days without a gas cylinder. The criss-cross of wrinkles on his forehead deepened at the slow progress of the serpentine queue. The cool breeze in the scorching sun of May failed to calm him. He left the queue in desperation and approached a deliveryman who had just returned from transporting cylinders to a few selected homes.

“Buddy, my wife has delivered a baby and my home is bereft of fire. Please, do something. I can’t bear all this.”

The deliveryman, a picture of deprivation, looked into his humble eyes, and nodded.

The other man’s face lit up. “I will give you a hundred rupees.” He poured out his feelings.

The deliveryman, whose own face had relaxed with the joy of occasional giving, suddenly masked it with a deep scowl.

“You are insulting me.” His breath, laden with the pungent smell of homemade liquor, tickled the other man’s nostrils.

“But…but this would be a substantial amount for you.” His voice smelt of apology and fear.

“You have insulted me.” The deliveryman spat on the ground, took hold of his rickshaw and moved off, mortified, his face red with anger.

Deepak Kapur is English Lecturer based in India, where he is exploring the writing field like an industrious student. His poem “Encounter with a Snake” has been selected by Ten Thousand Monkeys Magazine. He can be reached here.