Christmas time is one of happiness and joy, one of
smiles and celebrations. And one of cold snowy winter as well. Three days to go
before Christmas, the city was in a festive and joyous mood. That snowy night,
I found myself walking on the pavement draped in all sorts of winter wear I
could lay my hands on. I was missing my wife quite a bit, she had to go out of
town for a conference and would be back only on New Year’s Eve. The late-night
walks and a midnight coffee with her would’ve been just what the doctor
ordered, if you ask me.
Yet there I was alone among a sea of humanity, with an
all-professional visage in a surrounding filled with holiday cheer and
festivities. Somewhere afar, I heard the hum of a cathedral bell chime ten.
Even at this hour, there were a lot of people outside, quite a sizeable chunk
of them with children, throwing snowballs at each other. I was immune to the
celebrations around me, as I watched the setting dispassionately.
I slowly made my way across the street to a café. Like all other
shops in the vicinity, the café too was decorated with Christmas trees and
decorations hanging from the walls. There was a decent sized crowd in the café,
most of them clutching their cups of piping lattes and hot chocolates taking in
the vacation spirit and engaged in lively conversations. Just as I was about to
push open the door, my eyes darted to the side. And there, I found him, yet
another homeless man in this city of dreams. He had a blanket which he had
draped across his body, and a tattered pair of shoes which, I wondered, did
much to protect his feet from the wintry chill. He was not much different from
the thousands of others whom I’ve seen on the streets over the course of years,
but I shouldn’t generalize or trivialize this human being. This was not a
number I could add up if I were counting the number of such individuals I had
come across on the streets, this was a human being with life and blood.
Even he seemed to embrace the mood of the occasion. He was
smiling, or more accurately, that’s what I read from the spread-out lips with
hardly anything resembling teeth inside his mouth. Despite the cold, it seemed,
he was bent on giving his life the few hours of joy and liveliness he rarely
could afford. As I pushed open the door and stepped into the café, his face and
his smile, somehow, had affected me. Something all of the life and energy
around me in the past few hours could not do, a look at his face for a few
seconds did for me. For the first time that evening, I found myself smiling.
I was still sporting my smile when I went up to the very cheerful
barista at the counter.
“I’ll take a tall latte” I said.
As she was about to bill my latte, I corrected myself.
“Actually, make that two lattes. And I’ll add a couple of scones
to that order as well.”
A few minutes later, I exited the café sipping my latte and
holding the other latte and scones in my free hand. And I bent down in front of
the man in front of the café and put down the latte in front of him and handed
him the scones.
“Merry Christmas to you my dear man,” I said.
“You too, sir. Oh, thank you so very much for these. May God bless
you!”
I smiled and stood up. As I slowly started to walk away in the
direction of my apartment, I heard him say, “You’ve fed a hungry soul sir.
That’s another day for you in paradise.”
The title is inspired by a song of the same name by Phil Collins. You
can watch the song here and the lyrics can be found here.
