I was much tensed because I got out of office late in the night and was not sure whether I will be able to board the last bus. I was the only one in the bus stop except for a few children whom I guessed had made the streets their home. To add to my worry it started raining and these children came running to take shelter under the bus stand. I moved a few yards away from them thanks to their not-so-clean outlook. I kept staring at the rain for some time, artificially peaked into the silence to look for the bus when these two children caught my attention.

They looked like siblings and I assume their age put together would not be over eight. The elder one, a girl, had a loaf of bread and the younger one, a boy was asking for the bread. She tore the loaf into two and looked at both the pieces and gave him the slightly smaller half. He ate it immediately and asked for more. She refused. He started crying, I thought it was a little bit of pretence to evoke the sympathy of his sister. She would not budge. She greedily looked at the peace again, and firmly told him that it was her share and that she would not give it to him. This time he started crying loudly. It could be the hunger. She immediately gobbled the piece of her bread. Her brother got angry and toddled away from the place when my bus arrived. I kept staring at them from the window till I could see them no more. I got distracted by the various people in the bus and almost forgot the incident by the time I reached home.

A few weeks later I saw the children in the same bus stop, this time they had an apple fruit. This time, although she tried to cut the apple exactly into two, one have was slightly bigger. She looked at both the pieces again, and took the smaller one for herself. I was a little surprised. The boy noticed this and offered to take the smaller piece. She kissed her brother on his forehead and on his cheek and fed him his bigger apple piece.

I suddenly realized the fact that this is the way the world works…. At least most of the time.