Though
I came to university campus before him it seems that the campus belongs more to
him than me. He knows every face. You may call him a mobile encyclopedia of my university, an encyclopedia that you
can't google from your room, that you can't download from torrent or any
unauthorized downloading link and that you can buy through subscription. But in
case you succeed entering a correct password, you will be amazed how rich and
full of information this encyclopedia is. And just to remind you, the password
is very ordinary but daunting task. By forgetting your ego and considering the
other as human as yourself, you have to utter some friendly words and as soon
as contact between server and user is established is established, you have to
throw a name and immediately you will have all required information regarding someone like from where he or she comes,
background, family situation and more and more. Unlike others, he has
not joined the university as a student
but as a seller: the seller of eggs. In a
small plastic structure, he sells boiled eggs to calm the hunger of young
generation. Some with piles of books in their hand, some while coming from stadium
after a workout session surround and
bombard him with their unrelenting demands: ‘bhaiya
ek boiled egg de do’, ‘kitna hua
bhaiya’, ‘kya sirji kitna aur time lagega’,
‘change nahi hai’, ‘bhaiya...’, ‘bhaiya...’... And he replies to each query, question
and complain about a bad service about a
smile. It’s not that smile which comes to
our face when we hear ‘smile please’ or ‘photo’
word. It’s a true one which comes directly from the bottom of his heart. Some
evenings, his son helps him too in daily work. Both son and father duo peeling
and cutting eggs, chopping onions in small pieces, making orders ready. Eyes
focused on work and ears trained towards new order from customers. Students
discuss their success, failures or future plans. I wonder whether they pay heed
to this discussions or not. Does the idea
of sending his son to a good school and then a university not crosses to his
mind? All these questions come up to me whenever I visit this so called ‘shop’.
While our hunger is momentarily satisfied what about his hunger: the hunger to succeed, hunger to have a good life, to have a job and food security...
