When i woke up this morning...feeling lazy to wake up..i lay there in bed thinking of small incidents in school when something got my attention! There was this Rambo man who used to come everyday and sell pictures of Rambo,actors and movie posters at a nominal price. He yells at the top of his voice and did attract a lot of children's attention... Ramo... rambo...
He would come early morning before the school assembly and then back during break and he still was there when the school ends. This was quite a pain in the neck for the local aboks (grandmas [plural] in manipuri) who sold food items nearby. They used to scold him everyday saying that he snatches poor childrens money, which their parents give for food items. One day, one of the local abok got so pissed at him and threw the dirty waters of the drench nearby and told him to go. There was a series of scoldings that followed and poor rambo man was standing there like a defeated war hero..listening to them. We felt bad for him. They were angry at him for no reason we thought.
I felt bad for rambo man that time in school days because i knew that the local aboks wanted him out so that they can earn more for a living. I was angry at the aboks thinking that it was our choice of preference that we buy his posters..he didn't drugged us to buy them! Some of the children even shouted at the aboks for doing so. But then i realized that they all are fighting for one thing - money for a living! I knew how it feels to be rejected....and if you are rejected from your way of earning a living how will you feel? I felt bad for them all when i was a child.
This morning...i could actually see their faces so distinctly. It was as if i was dreaming and i had drifted back in time to witness all those incidents before my own eyes again. I could see his eyes...red and swollen from the treatment of local aboks. The aboks, leaning a bit due to their age..were still yelling at him and telling the children not to buy from him as it wont fill their stomach. Some children were still asking for new movie posters, some asking for rambo, and some for posters of arnold. It was quite a spectacle.It was a fight for real... a fight for power... a fight for ones living...a fight for their lives. No matter why, rambo man returned back after some days. He had already decided his fate.... i guess i did hear him say, when he was leaving after the brawl," i'll be back" like arnold.
