Beauty and the beast

I was waiting and sitting on the scooty while my father went on some errands. There was a time when I would go with my father, but now, I am sort of lazy 😔.

The view on a roadside is as theatrical as a Christopher Nolan movie if you have the eyes to see it. People going with their families, people going alone, people returning from work, people enjoying their retirement, some are having ice cream cones in their and their tongues are busy with it, some have packed foods in bags to enjoy it with their families at home. But there was someone else, sitting beside me, whom I hadn’t noticed, which was again very weird. How can I not notice a guy sitting beside me on the roadside?

It was a cobbler, a shoemaker. You see those cobblers sitting on the roadside, above a footpath, with tents above their head, their legs folded to somehow fit in that place. With shoes, and straps, and laces, brushes lying around them, like we leave our rooms untidy. He was using his phone, maybe got some wifi from the pizza hut above him. What came to me striking was that, he was looking happy. Almost, satisfied and content. It didn’t look as if he was sitting on the roadside doing a job that no one appreciates or would ever want for themselves. He was just immersed in his own 4x4 foot life. A small kid standing across the street with his mother was flashing a little red-colored flashlight toy around the road. A girl was walking his hands in daddy’s hand, and cola ice cream in the other. She asked her father to give his ice cream to him and trade them. Her father did so very gracefully. Such a beauty! The little angel seemed as if she had everything in that small icecream.

A few shops before this cobbler’s 4x4 kingdom was a clothes showroom. One of those well-lit, almost shining showrooms with dummies put out on the front gate wearing some high fashioned clothes to attract the customers. A few more shops before that shop was a tailor’s shop, that exclusively dealt with woman clothing, we call it a boutique. Just opposite to that was a beauty parlor, and women’s undergarment shop, which I remember vividly because they have posters of beautiful bikini women outside their shop. I don’t know how many women buy from that shop after getting attracted by those bikini poster women, but I am pretty damn sure, a lot of men are attracted to it. Whenever I pass through that road, I see a new woman and a new colored bikini. I wonder what they do with the old ones. Anyways, this area was so well lit that you might think that you are in South extension’s lavish shops. And just a few feet away, is my friend cobbler, with his flex board saying, “20 rupay ki polish, 10 rupay mai, colored polish 30 rupay mai.”

Just a few shops after this shoe expert was again a few food shops, well lit and well maintained. Bikaner Sweets, Agarwal Snacks, Sanjhi’s Rasio, Golu ke golgappe… apparently all Indian surnames were there.

And then there was this undisputed king busy in his own life, in his own area between two totally unmatching places, and a lavish pizza hut above his head. There was a sort of beauty to it. A few horn sounds, some little girls giggling, some little boys playing with their toy guns and flashlight and a cobbler. I wonder how many people he saved when they were going to an interview or their office, and forgot to polish their shoes. How many women he saved by fixing the heel of their sandals which broke while getting off from the car.

And this guy was so content in himself, it didn’t look like he needed anything at all. He had the world with him. Sometimes, a few strangers would pass by and say a few greetings and then again he is busy in his life.

There is beauty in everything, it's present in the acceptance, it's present in the rejection, it's hiding around the corner, it's flowing with the river, it resides within you, and it is present in every peace of the world.

I don’t know if everyone looks at things like this sometimes, but I do. I have an obsession with beauty. When I see it in someone(not on someone), I can’t resist but express it. Obviously, it has bought me a number of heartbreaks, but I can’t stop.

I will try to be like that cobbler was, happy and content, what about you?