“My man will die wishing for meat!”

It was the first day of fourth month of the twenty tenth, when someone knocked at the old door of my rented house. One of my sons ran, opened the door and an old woman cried out: "My man is sick. Please help me with a few rupees." With this the heartbroken woman entered the house and sat in front of my room by the doorway of the house where I was sitting and thinking about the life. 

The woman cried her bad days in a hard nomadic voice. She cried and said: “I don't have anyone. My man is sick. We are nomads. We don't have a house May God destroy houses of soviets who made us to beg.”

Hearing this will set the human heart on fire. I went outside and saw that all my children and family were around. My mother approached the old lady from the other side of the yard and said, "Hey aunt, take these clothes.”

"My man is very sick, he can't walk, he might live for a few days or not, I need money," she said to my mom seeing the clothes.

The old lady cried over her troubles, her sick husband and helplessness, and the tears were flowing on her white beautiful wrinkled face. A green beauty spot on her forehead and tears in her eyes was a show of contradiction of life between joy and sorrow. The dust on her old shoes was telling the story of her long walking in streets. And the pack with her seemed to be the result of her crying and walking.

The crying continued and she was frequently drying the tears with her scarf on her head. After drying the tears and heaving a sigh, a new pain was exposed. It was as if her whole life was full of troubles, sorrows, and tears.

Every (sigh and cry) pierced the human heart, depicting the contradictions of life and the cruelty of corrupt and selfish politicians. It further unveiled the mystery of the blindness and greed of the rich ones around.

The crying and the saddening situation of the lady had made my children stuck. So the children were handing over their money of the balloons and chewing gums to the desperate woman.

Seeing of each Afghani/rupee she would utter a prayer, but with this her pains and aspirations would become more apparent. “My man says, I would die in wish of the meat.” was making everyone shocked and would bring the beast like politicians in your eyes who are feeding their families extravagantly and building the numerous castles with the cost of blood and flesh of the poor ones!

By: Abdul Wadood Basharyar