A Piece Of Cake

It was my sister Mrudula's wedding reception on 19March'11. The occasion is itself to create an festive atmosphere among our family members & close circle of relatives. The platform was decorated in grand setting....photo sessions with friends....wishes.....cake cutting....dances...lot of fun. It was 11:00PM and the reception has reached the climax. Shyam, our photographer, was still having his creative juices flowing, trying to get the poses right from my sister and brother-in-law. They looked tired, it was obvious. Infact they were standing the platform since 7:00PM.

My Suresh & Ramesh mama were at the kitchen busy in discussions with the chef for the next days menu. My dad was standing there down the stage talking to the orchestra party and reg. their payment for the services. The orchestra was quite a good hit this time in contrary to my elder sisters marriage reception orchestra(which was dull due to the unfortunate incident of theft of some money). I was standing there at the corner of the stage beside my mom who was talking to my sisters mother-in-law reg. the jewellery's handover& next days post-muhurtham rituals.

Suddenly, i felt a slight tug at the trousers. I frantically looked down with a slight irritation. There stands two small girls with torn off & untidy clothes. Distracted hair and their running nose can get you irritated in a moment. I looked at them with disgust and asked rashly "What?". They both pointed out at something on the stage vaguely. I couldn't figure out what they were exactly asking or pointing out. This time more disgustedly i shouted, "What do you want?". I really donno why i was behaving so rashly to them for no reason. This time, instead of pointing at the object the girls unanimously said "Cake". I immediately rushed to the table on which the cake was kept. I was sure that none of us will eat that cake anymore. It was less than half. It was distributed to whomever after the cake cutting. The remaining cake is left and no one bothered to clean it up or distribute it to the guests.

Some fake snow & some pieces of color papers which are basically busted out from the indoor crackers used for the celebrations are scattered and fell on the remaining cake. With no hesitation i handed it over to the kids. The kids received it with utmost happiness & care as if they were receiving some kind of oscar award. Their eyes sparkled as if some billion rupees were given to them. I thought, "After all its just a piece of cake". I couldn't stop noticing the girls running away from the stage merrily. I could see the joy in their run as well. It made a strong impression on my subconscious mind. I donno why. When ever i think of it, i till now remember the spark i saw in the eyes of those little girls.

Somethings which are not at all important to you may be the most important thing to somebody & vice ver·sa. This episode reminds me of my encounter with one of social welfare organization member. Once, one social welfare organization, a non profit orphans organization member, came to my home for a donation. He was actually doing this for a service. He showed me some pics and paper clippings of events organized by his org. He also shared some moments of success and moments of irritations he face when he goes for asking donations. The point he mentioned, "Atleast 50 - 100 pupil can have one dinner with our one weekend expenses". He was actually pointing to software professionals. He continued, "IT Professionals spend money during the weekends on shoppings, eat-outs etc. If each person donate 25-30% of such luxury expenditure, thousands of orphans, old-age homes will run well & many more pupil will get a living". May be thats true.