An alcoholic neighbour-A story

26 years back a father, a mother and a son had to set out on the unknown seas of life. The family boat floated directionless for many days. No land was visible for days. The fog of uncertainty pervaded all around. But they lived…..

Grass emerges out of the cracks of cemented walls. Likewise, life also comes out green through many troubled blockades. Life NEVER says “NEVER” because human heart is always a natural seat of undying hope. Therefore, life had generously given them many narrow escapes, tears, disappointments and last but not the least some happy moments.

In the flow of time a new member was added to the small family. A baby girl cried and all woke up to her care. Times passed and life moved. The son grew into a man. He got married and was blessed with a child. By that time the little girl had also grown into a lady and one day she found her soul mate and went with her stepping gently into a new phase of life.

Life continues like this-One generation holds the centre-stage for a while and then slips away to make room for the next. Individual life is but a single ringlet of an infinite chain. The previous generation vanishes in a state of decrepitude while the next one blooms.

One day the son, who was now a young man, stood on a busy bus stop. A hand from behind gripped his hand. He turned his back and found a decrepit old man holding his hands. The old man was dressed in shabby clothes. The son vividly remembered that the old man was his neighbor 26 years back when he was a boy of 8years. He was a tax collector of a marketing committee. Most mornings he would call the boy to his home to have breakfast. The boy would go to his home and would play songs on his sound system. He would take breakfast there and after that he would return his home. The neighbor had a wife. The couple had a bad habit of drinking alcohol. Day by day this bad habit developed and disturbed their life so unfortunately that the neighbor lost his job and faced legal proceedings on charges of misappropriating office money. By that time the boy’s family moved to a different house. The boy could no more witness the gradual downfall of that neighbor. But after so many years alcohol had turned him into a beggar. The old man asked about the well-being of the young man and then asked for hundred rupees. The young man took out a 500 hundred rupee note with some tears in his eyes. He gave it to the old man and left the place in great disappointment. He knew well that he could give only a temporary relief to the old man’s inevitable disintegration but he could never stop this tragic human waste.

Alcohol never leaves its prey so easily. A day will come when this liquid enemy will eat up the soul of that old man and he would be left in a drain to die alone and helpless. And the world would not care for the old beggar although he had the fine human sentiments of feeding a young boy as a way of loving the humanity in general.