A mere ‘thought’ amounts to nothing

Getting old without money is not an option.

That skinny old lady, whom I had been seeing on my way to work every day, suddenly went missing one day.

I had been seeing her for a few months now. She was old and very thin. But she always wore her dupatta carefully, which meant that she was conscious enough of herself and her mental faculties were not all gone.

A sofa near the furniture shop was her home. Mostly, I would spot her interacting with the shop employees or talking to herself. At other times, she would just sit quietly. She would have before her a cup filled with tea and sometimes she would sew while sitting on her sofa.

And now she was gone!

Since I had been noticing her every day, her absence was disturbing. It seemed as if something had gone out of place.

So, one day, I stopped and inquired about her from the furniture shop employees. They told me that she practically lived on that sofa for three months and even spent her lonely nights there. The shop-owners would try to persuade her to come with them so that she could be moved to some place safe but she refused to budge. No one ever came to ask for her as she lived there.

However, a kind man would come in a white car and give the dhaba owner some money to provide her food every day. I was informed that the man had found her at the Jinnah Hospital.

After listening to this, I decided to go to Jinnah Hospital where I found more old people on the streets nearby. Their innocence looked like children’s, except that children have a future, and these people do not. I did not find the skinny old lady I was looking for but ended up spending some time with old people on the street. Some of them were rude; others were talkative and asked for help. Still others did not talk at all.

I understood at that very moment that getting old without money was not an option. Maybe, one day, my own children would throw me, since economic conditions tend to dictate relationships. That was a mental note. More importantly, I reminded myself that just noticing the skinny old lady or just wishing to do something for her was not good enough. A kind thought amounts to nothing if one cannot act accordingly. Perhaps, just thinking well about something is a twisted way to satisfy ourselves. A mere ‘thought’. Does our duty end here?

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2013.