Don't Cry over no shoes

Not that I wasn't a nocturnal earlier but this MBA has kept me up in the nights for the wrong reasons (read Studying or finishing assignments). I have this sad room in Katwaria Sarai (one of the down market places near my college) but the good thing about is that it has a balcony.

I sometimes come out in the balcony whenver i'm taking a break from studying or working and most of the time I miss my old life and always ask myself the question "Why did I come here" "Why did I choose this life of misery for myself" or something like that. When you are alone at 3 o' clock in the night, have no one to talk to (roomie is fast asleep all the time) and generally hate everything around the 'voice in your head' does get very loud.

And at this time I start feeling more miserable than before. But there is this one thing which always gives me hope.

There is this guy who sells 'Paranthas' in my street. He generally starts making the paranthas from around 10 o' clock and continues till about 12:30, after that he puts all of them in a 'Hot-Case' and moves his stuff into one of the streets, thats maybe because the police won't let him remain open through the night. Now Katwaria Sarai is a place which is full of Students and people who work in BPOs in Guragaon nearby and the place sees activity almost through the night, and hence also a demand for 'Paranthas'.

But that doesn't mean he is selling his 'Parantha' like the proverbial 'Hot Cakes'. Most of the night he sits alone waiting for someone to come and buy paranthas from him, or sometimes asking the passers by if they need it, thinking someone would not know of the facilties provided at this time of the night.

Whenever I'm pissed off and standing in that balcony I see him, up all night , with no one to talk to and nothing to do but wait for somebody to come. But he never seems mad at anybody, not at fate or god or himself. And for what ? Maybe 5000 Rs per month, thats the amount I have spent on booze in one night sometimes.

Which always makes me ask myself the question - "Why am I crying over no shoes when there are people with no feet ?"

(P.S. - Its 4 o' clock and i'm tired of studying Marketing and thinking I would have accepted that offer to booze and I can see him standing outside trying to sell a few more Paranthas. Suddenly my life doesn't seem so Grim anymore)