I always saw him at the red light, a scrawny little thing about six or seven years, wrapped in tattered clothes, soot-smeared face and unclean teeth. Although one amongst the many street urchins, but still, he appeared a bit different, to the extent of being eye-catching. At the turn of the red traffic light, his mother would nudge him to go out to the idling flashy cars and beg for alms. “Make a sad face, get some tears” I had heard her urging him once, as he looked at her and reluctantly got up to come towards my car. He stood silently by my car, peeping in. I think the red light was not working that day and so the traffic jam in front of me was crawling at snail’s pace. There was chaos in front of me as impatient office goers honked their way while trying to cut through the traffic mess. Some people were shouting at each other while a couple of them were out of their vehicles to exchange fist-fights! Sighing at the prospect of yet another delay-mark on the register, I turned my attention towards the pavement side. It was then that I noticed him, peeping through the window, his eyes and nose barely visible, short that he was. “Oh! How these parents can make their kids beg!?!” I looked at him with great sympathy in my eyes. He looked back right into my eyes …as if reading my thoughts… he did not spread his hands to beg.

I did something contrary to my usual practice- for some strange reason, before I could realise I was reaching out for my purse. I never gave money to begging kids. This kid looked at me and then moved away from the window, but kept staring at me from a distance. I called him and handed him a packet of biscuit along with a one rupee coin. He quietly took the biscuits, but not the coin. He looked at me and in a low whisper he said “Thank you…didi jee”.

I was quite pleasantly surprised and smiled back at him. He ran away to his mother and I saw that she was not so happy about his earnings, but, nevertheless, she snatched the biscuits and kept them under her rug and pushed him away for another round of begging. His tiny eyes now sad, looked at me and then he disappeared, in the crowd of cars.

I moved on, with thoughts pouring in and out of my mind. The day dragged on and soon I was engrossed in my daily task, forgetting almost everything about the boy.

The next day when I was preparing to leave for office, I somehow was reminded of this boy and strange though, I quickly fished out another packet of biscuit. I found myself calculating the time I would need to spot him and hand over the packet to him. What if I don’t see him, what if he does not see my car, will he come to me? I may not be able to handover the packet to him as this red light was for a short time.

Just as I approached the red light again I saw him from a distance. For the first time I was praying for the light not to be green. As if God answered my prayers, I saw him and he came running straight to my car. I looked at him and smiled and said “Good Morning!” while handing the biscuits to him. I could not wait to see his mother’s reaction but could recall her frown. I looked in the mirror of my car and saw him waving at me.

Now every day I made sure I carried something with me. Though it started with biscuits, but soon I started looking for more exciting options. The joy I would get to see him smile was priceless.  He would now come straight to my car, with a big smile on his face and a cheerful “Good Morning didi”. I would smile back at him. Without fail he would say a “Thank you” as he smilingly took his daily treat.

I never saw him with anybody else but his mother. I think he lived on one of the pavements near the lamp-post.

Though I met him in the mornings I never saw him in the evenings even though I would cross that same red light in the evenings too.

I often wondered how does he brave the heat, or rain, what would he do when it would be cold and my heart ached as I imagined him sleeping on the road in the cold or getting wet the whole night.

The strange attraction towards him grew stronger every day. I started leaving a little early and would stop my car a little before the red-light, so that I could speak to him.

By now I knew his name. He was called Pappu. He had no father and he stayed with his sister and mother under the lamp-post. His house was a blue plastic sheet tent, with two mattresses and one blanket. He had some broken toy which he had picked up from the garbage pile.

“Do you like what I get you to eat?” One day during one of our meetings, I asked. He shyly nodded his head and whispered “My sister likes it more.”

 “I eat only one and keep the rest for her so that she can eat whenever she gets hungry. You know, she is small and needs more food. My mother cannot get her milk.” He explained without batting an eyelid.

“Can I meet your sister?” I asked. He appeared scared. “My mother will not like it. She does not like it when anybody tries to come near my sister. But, I will get her tomorrow morning when I come to meet you.” he shouted while running away.

His words kept ringing in my head. “Does his mother not like her daughter? Typical lower class and illiterate people problem”, I thought, “as usual, boys mean happiness and money and girls mean burden. Things will never change here, people will never understand! But then, she is a woman too, then how can she behave like that!?!”

The next day he came with his sister. “Her name is Payal” he grinned. I could feel a sense of pride in his voice. I smiled.“Isn’t she beautiful? She is my sister.”  Payal was plump and surprisingly, much cleaner. She had big eyes and a smiling face. I must say she was very attractive. “She is very pretty.” I said.  I wanted to lift her in my arms, but obviously, did not. She must be just around two years old. I wondered where their father was. Did he die in a road accident or did he leave their mother and run away, both options quite common in their kind of lives.

Suddenly I saw the mother running towards us. She looked scared, flustered and almost on the verge of crying. Ignoring me, she slapped Pappu on his face, shouting at him, “Why did you get her out? I told you to stay away from her!” I was shocked. Before I could react, Pappu ran away with tears bursting out of his eyes and yelling back “I hate you! I’ll not come back!”

I stood there as if glued, as the woman lifted the girl and walked away.

A thousand questions kept popping in my mind, troubled thoughts. I was one restless soul that night, barely able to sleep. What if he actually meant it, what if he ran away somewhere? I looked at the clock, it was around ten. I decided to drive up to that red light.

I quietly picked up my car keys and stepped out. As I approached the red light I realised how quiet the road was.  The road which would roar and growl in the morning hours was sleepy as if resting now. Hopefully, so would he, I prayed.

Just as I turned to go back, I saw him under the lamp post, with a book in his hand. I was shocked. I parked the car and moved towards him. He, too, looked equally shocked to see me “Didi ??”

“Hey what are you doing here this late?” I asked “You know how to read?”  The surprise in my voice was evident.

“No didi. I try to, but can’t read that well. I sometimes go to that school where they teach kids like me, so I can read little”

“Where is your mother?” I asked. He kept his eyes lowered, “She, umm, she …” he fumbled. “Where is your sister? Are they fine? Why are you here? Why are you not sleeping?” I asked. He pulled the blanket wrapped around him and I saw Payal sleeping peacefully in his arms. He kissed her forehead, but kept silent.

“Are you angry because your mother slapped you in the morning?”

“No, No, didi. Amma does that sometimes,” he said, trying to justify her action. “You see, she has lot of tension…” he trailed off. Further lowering his voice, almost in a whisper, he confided “Because Payal is so beautiful, Amma is always scared for her and keeps her hidden from everyone. So nobody can see her or take her and spoil her like they spoiled my mother.” I stood speechless.

He continued in a louder and more firm voice “I will grow big and protect Payal from all. I’ll protect my mother too from all these dirty men who come to her with their trucks in the night. I am the man of the house. I am small right now, so cannot fight them. They come and they give Amma some money. Amma is saving them so one day, we can have a home and we can send Payal to school.” My amazement grew in leaps and bounds. 

“Should I show you something?” He took me to a place where his bed was and pulled the mattress. I saw all the biscuits hidden there “ I am saving these for Payal, so that when she is hungry she has food and she never has to go in front of those dirty men to beg.” I had no words to utter.

I turned away to hide my tears, as I did not want this brave boy to see me thus. Composing myself, I looked back to see him fondly kissing Payal’s head. He looked at me and smiled, covering Payal with a blanket.

I dragged myself to the car, tears streaming down my eyes and my throat choked. As I sat there, trying to absorb all that I had seen and heard, I realised that I had a new reason to go through that road every day.  I had one more friend to care for now- her name is Payal.