Give a man a fish, you feed him today but teach a man to fish and you feed him for life - Unknown

Everyday you have at least one experience which would make you feel has enriched or makes you stronger and stays with you. Some experiences are deep enough for you to think about it for the next few days or as is in this case, blog about it.

Yesterday ended as usual, finishing errands and running to shops in different locations, trying to catch them before they shut for the day. On an off note, Delhi is the only place I know where shops shut before eight. So much so that if there are customers standing outside, asking, whether the shop is open or closed, even more business does not drive the shops to remain open longer.

After running through many options, including doing a virtual inventory of my fridge, I decided to pick up dinner on my way home, from the closest Nirula's outlet, near home. As we were waiting for the order to come through.. I noticed two kids outside. Beggars they were, playing with each other, fighting with each other with attention only shifting when someone walked out with food. There was nothing new about it. But this one time I felt really bad. I mean kids deserve an untainted childhood, at least, because once they grow up they will anyway get caught up in the miasma that is life. But then nobody said life was fair.

Seeing them chase other people, last evening, something snapped in me. I say snapped, because to some extent I too am conditioned not to see them, even while looking at them. But yesterday I could not bear to think of all that food one wastes and these little ones do not probably even get a meal.

I just had to. I bought them two ice creams. I thought it would make me feel better in the sense that at least for today their appetites eased and smiles returned and they would not want to chase or share or beg. But instead of making me feel better, it did not. Because even as I struggled over which flavours would they like.. I was also thinking "what about tomorrow?"

Thats when I realised that just giving them on one day would not be really an answer to what the problem seemed to be. And then my colleague, who thought I would be happier giving them ice cream, asked me why I was still looking unhappy. Hearing my dilemna, he said, "..then you know in which direction at least you need to take you first step.... "