R.D. Bhardwaj “Noorpuri”
Once, a lady was walking in the market, looking for a good shop for purchasing the goods of her requirement. It was the last week of December and cold season has set in and showing its affect, particularly on the poor people with very little means. As the lady was slowly walking, looking through the shops from where she could purchase maximum number of items and commodities required by her, she noticed a little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing outside a shoe store, completely bare-footed, trying to peep through the window panes and shivering with cold. He also did not have sufficient clothes on his body to protect him from the cold season.
The lady walked upto the young boy and asked, “Dear baby ! Why are you standing here and what are staring through the window? “
“I find that there are hundreds of shoes inside the shop, but I do not have any to wear” the boy replied with a feeling of desperation.
The lady observed him carefully from head to toes and found that the boy was really a destitute and did not have anything sufficient to protect him from the fast advancing cold weather, and thus, she again asked him, “Where is your father, why don’t you ask him to buy a pair of shoes for you?” The boy simply replied that he does not have father and he further informed that his mother works in some houses as a maid, but she does not sufficient money to buy goods for me.
The lady was a generous person and she was moved by the plight of the boy. She also observed that whatever clothes the boy was wearing were not only dirty, but also ragged from here and there. The mother inside her came to the surface and she immediately decided to do something. She took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the shop keeper to give a pair of shoes and two pairs of socks for the boy. She then took him to another shop, bought a good shirt and pants for him. Then, she told him to go home, and advised him that first he should take bath, and only after that, he should wear his new pant-shirt and shoes etc. Thereafter, she advised the boy to throw away his old and torn-out and ragged clothes.
The boy was very much astonished to see the benevolent behaviour of the lady who helped him to get new clothes, which even his own mother could not do. As the boy was just about to go, as a matter of afterthought, she also bought some eatables for him and asked him to take all things things to home, safe and sound. Then, she lovingly caressed his hair, cheeks and patted him on his back and said, “I feel that you will be comfortable now and cold weather shall not tease you much !”
As she turned to go for her own shopping, the astonished boy caught her by the hand, and looking up straight into her eye, with tears in his eyes, asked her,
“Auntie ! Are you God’s wife ?”
Now, on hearing the strange question of the poor little boy, the lady was really surprised, and she put him a counter question to him, “My dear baby, why are asking this to me? ” The boy, with all his simplicity, replied, “My mother says that nobody helps the poor, only God helps the poor and the needy ….. So I thought that God may have gone somewhere, and He has sent his wife to buy all these things for me !! ”
