Her little feet trod along the rugged streets. While those feet carried themselves forward her heart
beat with one hope. A single dear wish to reach the fruit stall before the shining juicy things find their
way into the safety boxes, for the night to come.
Clutching those hard earned, twenty five rupees notes, she hurried along the gravel streets and reached
for the main street. Carefully looking for the screaming vehicles on either sides to be invisible, she
hopped and ran across to the other side.
Just few meters more...
“I want an apple uncle...”
The shop vendor gazed at those loosely hanging clothes hugging the bonny structure. She took those
twenty five rupees and stretched them into the hands of the vendor. He collected them and placed in
those scrawny fingers one shiny, big and bright apple.
When those tiny fingers clasped around against the shiny red treasure, they had the strength of a
warrior claiming his reward, yet also the tenderness of a mother accepting her new born babe into her
warmth. Her eyes sparkled in glee and it was a moment when the day's weariness did flee. Her spirit
and her whole self bounced up and down in ecstasy. She turned on her heels to find her way back to her
little abode.
She was once again trying to cross the road, this time her shining eyes unable to keep them away
from the bright thing lying securely on her palms.
Suddenly she was on the middle of the road...
A screech, a hone...
A scream, a fall...
Adrenaline rushing through her legs, had done their job, carried her towards the safety ground, off the
road...
But the tiny fingers losing their grasp at the suddenness of the events, had let the apple slip away.
When she turned, it was to see her day's earning being crushed down by the tires of the vehicle, that
could have crushed her own life moments before.
Hot tears swelled up in those eyes. Yet they never saw the fat little worm creeping through the partly
crushed apple.
ALLAH give us things. Takes it away. We thank HIM for giving us. Yet find fault with HIM for
taking it away. Sometimes we fail to realize that those seemingly bright things, that ALLAH takes
away from us, takes it away for something good, something better. HE is the Lord of the world
and heavens and HE knows much much better.
“It may happen that you hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows, you know not,” Glorious Qur'an (2:216)
