Girl on a bike and an old man cobbler

Girl  on a bike    and an old man cobbler

Translated by

P.R.Ramachander

(This was from a tamil magazine Ananda   vikatan   and was posted in face book by my  several of my friends .Thanks to that  great tamil magazine,)

One day   I was   walking  by   the side  of a busy road,

And saw a very old cobbler   trying to   cross the road ,

With a tea cup  in his hand to give it   to his sick  wife ,

Who was  lying with   closed eyes   on  the other side  of the road,

Suddenly , I heard  a  screeching sound   and a  very modern ,

Young girl    put sudden break to her   speeding  motor bike,

Her  vehicle came to a stop   very near  that old man,

And she shouted,” Oh barbarian , can you  not  properly  cross the road?”

She then  spit   at the direction  of the old man   and rushed away.

Watching this scene. I felt extremely sad because   the error,

Was not on the  part of the old man   and he did not   merit,

Such an abuse  from that  uncivilized  brute  of a modern girl.

Later  when I talked    about  it  to my wife   , after I reached home,

And said, “I feel that all modern  girls are  uncivilised”  and sge replied,

“Just by seeing the behaviour   of one girl , you cannot  rush,

To such conclusions , for majority  of modern girls are very cultured.”

Next day  I was standing at the same spot   and   the old cobbler ,

Waved  for the girl to stop  when she came there  and he  then gave her,

A very costly cell  phone   which had   dropped   from her  on the previous day,

And the girl    felt bad, parker her vehicle  saluted and thanked the old man .

With tears  in her eyes    she gave him   five hundred    rupees ,

But the old man refused saying, What I have done is a normal courtesy,

And  she replied, “Do you know    that this   phone costs forty thousand rupees?”

But the old man refused   to accept it  and she thanked him and left .

I then went and told   the old man, “In spite of her   insulting   you,

In an uncivilized manner  , you helped her  and taked to her well .

And I am not able to understand why?”   and he  replied with a smile,

“She is a a baby, someone like my granddaughter  and I am sure  she  will not do it again.”