The Queen

She said she was a queen … of luck and fortune. Sitting on a street of Guwahati she laughed hysterically at her ill luck and misfortune. She said she was a queen … of wealth and all the riches. And she laughed at her tattered clothes and the bowl in front of her with a few coins in it.

It was a fine October noon and we were on our mission of distributing clothes to the needy. After providing clothes and talking to seven or eight people living on the footpaths of Guwahati we finally met this mysterious woman sitting on the pavement near a Hanuman temple.

Unlike the others she wasn’t crying, nor was she grateful when we gave her a saree. All she did was laugh at the world that passed by and pretended to ignore her. And when we were about to leave considering her to be someone who would not talk at all, she made us stay spell-bound with her  words.

She told us how she was born in a well-to-do family but was made to beg on the streets, not by her parents, nor by the stratified society, not even by robbers or rapists, but by her own heart.
Eloping with a lover with a common dream of helping the needy she escaped the shackles of the society .. only to be bound by them later on.

A period of 12 months, she thought, should be dedicated to aiding the poor. Marriage, career and children came next.
Now 12 years from that very day has passed but she never could ever achieve her dream of building a career and marriage after a year of social service.
 She had fallen for the treachery of her unfaithful lover.
 “Rest you know”, she said.
With the demented beggars she now stays and this is how she pays. Being with them she helps them in their times of need. “Sad I am not. One of my dreams came true.” She concluded with an unrestrained smile.

And while people ignored her along with scornful looks, and while in spite of our claims of helping the needy, we could do nothing but leave, her voice still echoes in our heads and we return discerning the fact that she stilll is a queen… of love unconditional.