A passing revery!!!

Well, this is neither any oratory extract nor an excerpt from a short story collection. Its, by its own simplicity, an experience, one that doesn't emboss a mark of didacticism of life on us, but just passes us as unimportant yet memorable incidents.
This happened perhaps during a non-so-rainy day. I was in the Saheed Nagar Mobile store, doing my internship I had just bagged, thanks to my brother. I was a new recruit so hadn't found any particular job, and was caught up in odd ones. So for a break to my legs and engaging my ever-demanding stomach, I stepped out and walked over to the eatables zone of the market. Its was summer holidays, the weather was not-so-summer, so the massive number of people in the market made me realize "Of course, I am in India!" Then I finally came up to the primary section, where they serve all kind of eatables: gupchup,chat,dahivada, ....u name it, THEY HAVE IT! If some of you don't know, its a proven concept for psychiatrists that sight of an eatable,for which a person has a fetish for, stimulates salivary glands more than the sense of smell or touch. Its was well-proved for my eyes that day!!!
Well, the walls of my stomach commanded me to go over to the chat section and order a plate of chat. For all those who didn't follow, I wasn't ordering "casual conversations"......CHAT IS ACTUALLY A FOOD. I chose a stall in a corner, since there was not much rush in that area and, more importantly, my deodorant had dried out. So, my legs guided me to find a place at that stall and give the order. As I noticed, the stall was being led by two old men. Both approaching the age of 70. One was at the main counter, plating the order and serving them. The other was in-charge of odd jobs like cutting the onions, mixing the primary batter, etc. I watched over at them looking out for some young legs that should have been doing the running jobs for them. But they just had each other. In the meanwhile, I was served my order.
I started satisfying my stomach, but my mind lingered on lanes different to those of my stomach. These men had no one at that age but just eight cartilaginous structures for limbs. I just tried hard to imagine the circumstances that would have brought them to such a juncture of life. Then the the old man at the main station asked the other "Piyaja katilani???" -have you cut the onions? Dependence on each other were all they had. It hit me then that I was witnessing one of the greatest races of my time- a race for survival.
Readers, I am from an engineering background. So I do know very well the significance of competition in this world. An all-important race to prove to the world that "I am the best" has engaged every soul on this earth. But then I saw these two people who have lived their lives and have managed to set up an enterprise entirely built on the simple concepts of trust, self-reliance and a hope to survive the flash that has taken this world.
I paid the charges for my order with a Rs 100 note. Since the old man at the counter didn't have sufficient change to pay me back, he asked the other to get the change from some other shop. I was then that I noticed that he was crippled in one leg. My feelings were a mixture of lot many emotions but respect to their sense of hope was definitely one of them. This might seem like a story you would find in every corner of a road in India. But what caught my attention was the honesty of their enterprise.
The multinationals of today are embarking upon many things to increase sales and revenue. This demand has grown to such an extent that justification for this demand has vanished, and cheap marketing has come in. I am getting reminded of a line from one of my favorite plays of Shakespeare, Julius Caesar: "Justice thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason." The present world of business transaction has grown into several unethical systems of publicity that just more than promotes capitalism. Unhealthy gossip is a part of every cubicle. Unqualified product for mass usage are so much in circulation that it no more interests the public eye. Competition is so much in our mind that we don't remember anymore what we are fighting for.All we remember is that we got to fight. But here we see an enterprise, entirely built out of the basic foundations of what a true enterprise should be made of: trust, understanding, honesty, and an objective.
People might pass this stall everyday, not admitting these two old men into their "world altering" thoughts. But, what we miss is a chance to look at two frail men who have that hope in themselves and a trust in each other to make a tryst with life.

-Sarthak Pranit