Traffic Signal

After a long day of work and workout I got into the cab to head back home (around 9:30 P.M). I rolled up the windows and stayed warm inside the cab. I didn’t know if it was the tiredness or something else which made me feel low. I looked outside the window hoping to swerve away from my thoughts. When we reached Silk Board Signal, I heard a tap on my window. There was a small boy, probably about 8-9 years old standing outside. He was selling some toys. He showed me a small car and insisted me to buy. I refused. He kept hopping at all the other vehicles. He sounded confident in his sales pitch. I must say there was something eye-catching about that boy, I painstakingly looked at him and listened to his conversations.


It was cold and I couldn’t roll down the window. I felt bad for the boy who was selling toys outside in that cold. I was on the phone talking to someone, but my eyes were just following that little boy. Since all my focus was on that boy, I didn’t realize the signal was slightly longer than usual. It didn’t matter to me as I was admiring that little boy’s sales strategies. Through his perseverance he did made some sales :-).

The boy came back again to the car which was parked next to our's. There was a family seated (husband, wife and a kid). The moment he saw the kid, he was sure he would get a sale. He showed the kid the best of cars he had with him. The kid was impressed with the toys and started demanding for one. The kid’s mother got a little irritated and started shooing away the boy. Nevertheless, the kid didn't seem to give up. He was stubborn and demanded even harder than before.

Finally, the mother agreed to buy a toy. She checked on a few and finally took one toy. The boy did not stop at one, he started up-selling some other things. When the mother was not interested in the other stuff, he offered the second toy on a discounted price. The mother was skeptical and tried to negotiate for lesser amount. Finally she picked up two toys and started searching for her purse. By then, the signal was green. Slowly, all the vehicles started moving. So did our cab. The boy started running behind the car as the car drove away. The boy was hoping that the car would stop after the signal. He continued to run. He probably wouldn’t have ran like that in his life. He couldn’t run more. He stopped in the middle of the road and started gasping. The car was gone, money was gone and the toy was gone too. He vulnerably looked back at all the vehicles that were approaching him. It was really disheartening for me to witness the situation.

What do we say about these so called civilized urbanites? Did they really have to deceive that little boy? That modest boy works so hard for his living. I had so many questions in my mind but couldn't do much other than just grumbling.