Strange Relationships

Since the age of 8-9, I have been going to a vegetable market which gets laid every monday on the main road near my home. I remember myself as a kid, holding hand of my mother n a jute bag in the other hand, i used to walk through the busy road which had hardly any space left for other commuters. Carwallahs making their way through squeezed roads...Most of the stalls had kerosene lamps, while only a few others used bright halogen bulbs. Walking through it has always been fun, vendors call out loud to attract attention of customers and some even use innovative rhyming phrases like "lal khaoge lal ho jaoge, aisa tamatar kahi aur nahi paoge.." The market looks vibrant and alive, colourful fruits and vegetables clearly laid out, vendors sprikling water to make them look fresh, yellow lights, wide dark ebony sky above and hundreds of people wearing different ccoloured clothes and doing different things, making you feel that you are looking at world from a kaleidoscope. Observing people alone can amuse you for hours...

We have fixed vendors from whom we purchase fruits and vegetables and i am seeing those faces for years now. They all know us, wish me n my mom everytime we go to them- "Ram Ram bauji, Ram Ram Didi jee"... Somewhere in the midddle of bazaar we have a vendor from whom we purchase potatoes. A thin, shy person with an ever smiling face. Along with his son who was forbidden from the normal life of a child he has been laying his makeshift shop for more than a decade now... I have hardly spoken to him, my mumma is more verbose, she would ask him about his village, his son, which class is he in, and what not. And all i do is stand at the side and watch the girl next to me, bowing down to choose potatoes... Last week, i was coming back from office and was walking through the monday-market when my bag slightly hit a muscular man of 30's and he started fighting with me... At that moment, that potato-wala came up and started speaking on my behalf... It was strange, firstly it made me feel like a kid, being protected by others, n secondly i felt a strange relationship with that potato-seller... I didnt know how to react, i just smiled and said thanks, to which he replied "arre koi nahi bhaiya". Sometimes, such undefined relationships prove better than many other relationships. It is such strange relationships that bring back what most of us have forgotten in our fast-paced lives... Humanity!