“HEART
OVER MIND”
Charles hastily crossed the road,
paced up and down the footpath opposite to Hotel Jojoys where he works.
It was a cold Saturday afternoon,
rather windy. The birch trees, almost bare of leaves, were violently bending
down. Men and Women in their heavy coats, boys and girls with their arms,
interlocked, walked fast anxious to get a place of shelter, a restaurant/bar,
or to reach home.
Charles usually vociferous, kept a
mysterious silence, and continued, apparently unaffected to gaze the display
dangling leather- jacket at Cozys, in fluffy red collar, a real winter stuff. A
particular tanned attracted his attention.
He stepped into the mall; it was
shining with linoleum floor and smooth glass doors. The lightings brightened
the hall like in Diwali where all the houses are decorated with lights.
Different people continued to come and go into various shops. The shop-keepers-some
lean- thin but mustached, some pot-bellied and bespectacled were busy showing
costly clothes. It was as busy as fish market. He was lost for a moment.
‘Sir, how can I help you?’ the
counter man asked.
‘May I find the shopper…Cozys with
the winter stuffs’, Charles enquired?
‘Oh! Why not? It’s in second floor’,
the man replied.
‘Thank you’, Charles said and
happily went to the shop. He stepped into the shop with eyes on the leather
jacket. There was a young saleswoman, white and had red hair. She was beautiful
but had freckles.
‘Sir, what do you want? The woman
asked.
‘Oh! What’s the cost of this jacket?
Charles enquired.
‘Amm… Its thirty dollars’, the woman
said.
‘Ah! Thirty dollars,’ Charles
blurted out.
He felt inferior as he didn’t have
the required amount. He was paid only ten dollars for his service at the
restaurant and with great difficulty he meets his ends. He was disheartened.
His face lost its color and unwillingly, he left the shop with enormous
disappointment.
‘Thirty
dollars’ he said to himself. ‘It’s a big amount’. OH! How much work for thirty
dollars? He responded mentally.
Sulkily, he left the shop but was
still tempted to buy the jacket. Peering through the tall glass- window, he
imagined himself as a rich man wearing the jacket and walking majestically with
cigar in hand. He wanted to buy the jacket at any cost.
‘The only way to get this jacket is
to work hard,’ he thought. He became too ambitious and saved one and two at a
time from his salary.
Every time on his way to the restaurant,
he would make it a point that he at least had a glance over the jacket
confirming that it’s still there. He would spend some time looking at the
jacket, admiring it.
The
crowd of men, women and children continued to swell and flow into the shop which
made him insecure. ‘What if the jacket is taken by someone? He thought.
But the day was not far away when he finally
saved thirty dollars for the jacket.
‘Hurray…..! I did it’, he shouted.
His eyes glistened with amazing happiness.
Instantly, he decided to go for
shopping. On his way to the mall a strange sight distracted his mind. It was a
little girl holding a board, stating:
‘Want thirty dollars for the medication of my
mom. I have only my mom.’
The
girl was too weak as if she has not taken anything for many days. He stood
silently like a heap of decomposed flesh. ‘What a fate she has got? What
happened to her mother? Where is her family?
He thought.
Charles immediately went to talk
with the girl and gave her a bread to eat.
‘Where is your mother? He asked.
‘My mom, she…is in the hospital,’
she stammered. And continued, ‘I want thirty dollars for her operation as she
is very critical’, she wailed.
Amm…your father, Where’s he? Charles
muttered.
‘He… is no more. He died in a car
accident when I was seven’, she cried.
‘Ah…m sorry and don’t worry’, he
muttered with a comforting tone.
Some drops of tear were ready to
trickle but he hastened to wipe them off with his handkerchief when he saw the
girl’s condition.
He was in dilemma thinking about the
money.
‘Coat
or the girl? Thirty dollars for whom? He
thought.
‘Thirty dollars, as much as it’s important to
me, it’s important to the girl too. The jacket I was longing for and the life
of her mom.’ He said to himself.
‘The
jacket can be purchased by trying harder next time but life cannot be brought
back after death. Jacket is my desire but her mother is her need’, He thought.
This time he used his mind not the
heart to think over the situation and silently dropped thirty dollars in the
container in front of the girl.
The girl glistened with happiness
and there was a hope in her eye to save her mother.
‘Thank you…uncle’, she claimed with
joy. ‘I was worried that I may not get the money instantly but you made it to
happen’, she blurted out.
‘It’s nothing…the amount is
important to you more than me,’ he muttered.
‘Once again thank you uncle’, she
kissed him and went happily.
‘Welcome’, he mumbled.
‘Human
wants are unlimited but life, it’s a one-time phenomenon.’ he thought.
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