Friday, June 06, 2008

For what it is worth...

The 12 year old, gazes out of his mud hut. Waiting for the constable to come visit the boy's neighbor. She is the pretties girl of the village. Ever since the drought the cop has used his connections to help get her some food.

The constable arrives on his bicycle with some rice and dal. He waits outside his sweetheart's home. No body answers. He can see the figure of a hungry 12 year old standing in the shadows. The boy tells the cop "Sahab ji, Didi bol ke gayi thi ki raat ko der ho jayegi." The boy doesn't know where has she gone. The constable starts to head back but he can feel a pair of eyes staring into his back. He turns around and gives the food to the boy.

The boy can't see the constable leaving. The kids vision is blurred by his own tears. He goes back inside to feed his 2 year old sister. He eats as much as he can. He will need all his strength to bury Didi's body lying in the backyard.

UPDATE - based on some comments I figure you think I have lost my mind....well I think the post is self explanatory if you consider it is based on this photograph.

7 comments:

manuscrypts said...

:( only for the story, not the writing :)

Epiphany said...

@ Manu - :)

S said...

~~Shudder~~
Are u soon going to go on a psychotic spree killing school kids with a machine gun?

Epiphany said...

@ RTP - Please refer to the update in the post :)

Cynic in Wonderland said...

hmmmmmm....i had seen the snap earlier. always wondered why that photographer didnt help or something

Epiphany said...

@ Cynic - Well that is the problem with photographs...they have no history...according to wiki, the girl's parents were away from her for a few minutes to collect food from UN aid workers..the vulture flew off soon after the pic was taken.

As for the photographer, he killed himself 3 months later...may be this was not the only reason, but I guess it was a part of the reason!

Tys on Ice said...

i hope for the sake of my belief in humanity that the photographer carried that child to the UN Food depo.....