Strangers

The world is full of surprises and men have different ways to react. Tarun encountered such a practical shock two years ago, In those days he was working as an M.R for a reputed pharnacutical company in Mumbai. His parents had high expectations of him and they wanted to make him a doctor. But the sudden death of his father due to a massive heart attack had put an end to that dream. He was forced to take up this job to get both ends to meet. However, he is quite happy with his job. The only problem is that he had to travel extensively as a part of his duty. His main job is to visit the eminent physicians of the big cities in their chambers, nursing homes, and hospitals and to convince them about the uniqueness of their company products. Tarun has become an expert by now.

From his early boyhood, Tarun has the reputation of being  an amiable and soft-spoken person for he has not got anything rough in him. In his friend circle, he is always regarded as a moderate and considerate person.

Today he was visiting some eminent surgeon of the city who had a very tight schedule. Naturally, he could not meet the doctor at the appointed time. By the time he got a call inside, it got too late in the afternoon and lunchtime was quite over. When a hungry Tarun left the doctor's chamber it started to drizzle outside. He decided to ignore the rain as he was almost starving. He had also taken a very light breakfast that morning. He approached a food stall by the roadside and got his lunch packed. The lunch consisted of cramped chapatis and veg-curry. Hurriedly he entered the public park beside the food stall and comfortably sat on a bench. Just then, his eyes fell on a stranger sitting beside him on the bench. The stranger was middle-aged and looked suspicious in his thick beard and loose-fitting garments. Above all, the man had a savage and hungry sort of appearance. Tarun rejected him at the first glance. He put his food packet on the bench and took his mobile phone out to make a few important calls to the head office.

By the time he had finished talking, he felt the terrible irresistible hunger once again. Without wasting time he looked for the food packet. With horror, he discovered that his food packet had already been opened by that stranger and he had already started to gobble it. A feeling of anger and protest seized Tarun and his chicks grew red. He had a strong desire to slap the stranger on his face for this audacity. He said to himself "How could a man be so shameless to take another's food so casually as if nothing had happened?" "Is there no sense in that man that he should have taken his permission before taking his food?" However, the good element in him stopped him from creating a scene in public. But, at the same time. he became resolute not to leave his claim over his food. Hence taking one chapati from the packet he started to eat quickly. Seeing this the stranger laughed and placed the curry before him. His shame laughter and audacity made Tarun wild with anger. Thus, Tarun shared the food with the stranger most unwillingly. During his meal, he was continually tormented by the meanness and indecency of the bearded man. " The guy may either be a lunatic or petty criminal who takes advantage of other's decency.' grudged Tarun. Surprisingly the stranger satisfied himself with only two chapatis leaving four for the hungry Tarun. Tarun could believe his eyes seeing the stranger indicating him to finish the rest of the meal. As if the stranger was sacrificing his food. The stranger, having washed his hands, bade a silent goodbye to Tarun. Tarun was so angry to look at him. Suddenly his eyes fell on a food packet lying on the ground beside the bench. The color of his face vanished as he recognized that it was his food lying on the ground. It means he was trespassing in some other's food.

Who is vulgar? Tarun or the bearded man? Could a man be judged from his appearance only? Tears of repentance came into his eyes. But now it was too late. Had the stranger left the park already? Tarun had to apologize. Looking straight Tarun could see that the stranger had reached the main gate. When Tarun's guilty eyes met the stranger's, he only gestured of friendship- a true friendship between two strangers.

Suddenly, like a movie flashback, Tarun could recall one of the most unpleasant memories of his school days. In those days, he used to a student of St. Xavier's High school in his city. He had a few close friends in the class. Samar was one such friend. Tarun was so friendly and selfless that he gave the moiety share of his tiffin to Samar willingly almost every day. One day Tarun forgot to bring his tiffin to school. When he realized his mistake, it was too late. No tiffin could be arranged from home. Tarun was quite hungry and he was feeling miserable to see other boys taking their food happily and chatting merrily with each other. Suddenly he thought of Samar, his best friend. He was sure that Samar would never hesitate to share his food with him, especially when he urgently required it. With a lot of hope and faith, he approached Samar and found him busy with his butter toasts and omelet. He completely ignored the presence of Tarun as if Tarun was a stranger to him. With greedy eyes, Tarun looked at the quickly disappearing food. Then he left the place with a heavy heart and tears of humiliation in his eyes.

Now, today's incident has become an eye-opener for him. Now. he will never set any yardstick to differentiate between a friend and a stranger. Is there anything called a stranger? Who knows?