The Lemon Seller

Someone asked me the other day about my source of inspiration. I told the person that my parents are my biggest source. However, there are people whose actions or lives I find interesting enough to motivate others.

I remember going to the vegetable market near my home with my mother. Beside the vegetable sellers what one usually encounters are beggars who hunt (and haunt) you till you give them some alms. Most of them are able bodied men, women or children who simply do not want to work. This is one of the reasons why people abhor them.

While buying vegetables, I felt a tap on my arm. I turned to meet a boy whose appearance initially made me believe that he was one of those whom the people disliked. Immediately, I recognized my folly. He had with him a small basket, full of lemons, which he was trying to sell. He asked me and my mother whether we needed some.

This is no big deal. There is a horde of lemon sellers always ready with a basket in any market place. Of course it is true but with this boy it was different. He was no more than four and half feet tall, dark complexioned and poorly dressed. The basket hung in front of him with a rope that came around the back of his neck and he was using only one of his hands to make transactions. The other hand was peculiarly warped. I think one of his eyes had cataract as the pupil was ashen in colour and the other was half closed. His voice had a strange calm that I was able to feel. Without the basket he could have easily posed as a tramp, yet he was different from the others. He was trying to earn despite his disabilities. This attitude of his had earned my respect.

On my insistence, mom bought ten lemons even though we didn’t need them as just a few minutes ago we had purchased our required quantity from another seller. I felt that he must be rewarded for his hard work and more importantly, the zeal to do it. Ma went back into buying other stuffs and I kept looking at the boy who went his way trying to find more customers.

That was seven years ago. A couple of weeks back I recognized the same boy while he was walking down the corridor in front of a row of large shops. Other than his height, his body looked the same but this time there was no lemon basket and he was dressed in decent clothes.