After the speech Jim,the speaker, walked out of the Town hall just after taking few questions and introductions from the crowd. And as he walked out of the Town hall he felt fulfilled. He felt like a cool breeze flowing against his heart in his chest cleaning away the sore parts and he felt like his heart dancing to that cool breeze, as light as it can be. May be the feeling of joy when you do what you like the most and when you do what wakes you up all night. An arc on his smiling face never faded not did his heart stopped dancing. As he was just out of the Town hall his eyes caught a cab that felt familiar and soon wonder added to his delight. It was Max’s cab.
“Hey max, you said you couldn’t come to the speech”, Jim asked with his eyes widened.
“I didn’t, but i figured out when would you finish your speech and how would i meet you once again”, Max said.
“My goodness! thank you very much for coming. Jim took a back seat.
” Then, where are we heading now?”, Max asked looking at the rear mirror.
“To the airport, max” Jim said.
“Okay in 20 min” max said gearing up. “Then another speech in another city or what?”, Max inquired.
“Oh! no, just a small business with some schools in Bombay
“Oh, suits and coats with ppts”, Max added to the Jim’s answer.
Max stopped the car as an extension to the floating traffic attached to a traffic signal, just on the left edge of the road. There was a family, with a mother and two children playing in the dust, homeless under a tree just beside the road. The scene drew the attention of Jim and Max from the cab stopped in the traffic.
Max’s life just flashed in front of his eyes in a split second. The same happened to Jim too as both used to be in those places beside the road a few years ago. Jim was stuck thinking quietly of the two children playing in the dust. But for max, it felt like his heart’s been squeezed and his eyes got wet instantly. Not because max is too weak to handle the situation than Jim but they are in different positions of the learning curve. Max asked with his trembling voice and wet eyes with regular pauses and sighs, ” Jim, how do you explain that what made those kids lay in that dust and become dust to the world? and what god is doing letting it happen for those innocent kids?”.
Jim can feel the pain in his questions but he didn’t interrupt him as he knew he has more in his heart to come out and to be yelled out.
Max added, “why did they have to crave for food and sleep countless nights with empty stomachs? , why did they have no chance of getting good education which you call as the great social and economic equalizer in this world? and why did they have to crawl in the dust, walk bare foot and can’t become anything more than a taxi driver like me? why? where is god? and what you call him, yeah the almighty, where is your almighty? , Is he sleeping in the wilderness with the shame of what he created and never come back?, Is he already dead in between the creation and my childhood somewhere with shame? where is he? where is he now?