Not all that bad (Part2)

You need to look beyond.Say, you take a walk from the metro station to my apartment.
First, you will learn to ignore the whistles and provoking comments by the pan chewing, gutka dribbling bidi fuming men who idle aorund there all day.Next you will have to learn to be oblivious to the well-practiced but heart-afflicting appeal for spare coins from the few street urchins(that will be easy as time passes especially if you discover them smoking bidis behind the metro car parking area,and hurling offensive abuses at each other for making off with one of their 'bottle' or something of similar nature).
In the next 100 metres you will come to the line of furniture shops,this is the most irritating of all.Every half hour or so,the men in the shops gurgle and like skilled showmen,throw the jet stream from their mouth ,right in the middle of the street.They may hold the water in their mouth a little longer ,if a car happens to pass,but not for passers-by on foot.
By now,you may curse the place,but just then you see a teen-aged school boy guiding a blind-elderly man by the hand,to safety,even as his mom yells at him,from the balcony overlooking the street and threatens him with dire consequences if he doesnt come into the house immediately.He turns a deaf ear to his mom and an attentive ear to his young conscience.You smile inwardly,first at his obstinacy and then ,at his thougtfulness.
Walk a few more steps, and you cross the half crazed destitute who wears a bandage on his forehead for as long as you have seen him.He is peacefully sleeping on the footpath, you know that he sleeps here .All day,he loiters in the nearby streets.Someone who lives in one of the apartments closeby,provides him blankets every night and warm clothes too.Someone else provides him 2 square meals a day.
Finally,you reach the rented apartment called home.On the stairway,you meet your landlady.First thing she asks is"have you eaten anything today?".Reminds you of mom,years ago,asking the same when you got back home from school,sensing you skipped lunch.
Even though you smile and nod your head,your landlady assumes the authority of your mom and orders you to change and quickly come down to her for some lunch."You will collapse soon,if you dont eat well."
You did come down.Inspite of all your reservations and shyness,its hard to refuse her.
And at the end of it all,you will see that there are many wrongs in this large strange dirty Indian city,still some things warm your heart towards its people.If you stay long enough,they will have won you over.