From Shruti's Pen

Hey Readers!

I know it has been pretty long you’ve heard from me. Hope you all are in healthy and positive spirits since we met last time. I wasn’t off for an ‘Agyaatvas’😌 but certainly some other priorities kept me occupied! But I actually think that’s the beauty of it, sometimes a stretch of  solitude brings you back with a rejuvenated, revived and a better version of you! (Not boasting about having gone better, but still have experienced this happening!) So here I am with another intriguing and thoughtful experience that still keeps flashing in my mind and so I am so keen to share it with you all!

This post may not resonate much with those who have shifted from the paper copy of The Hindu or the TOI… to the Magzter editions but still it’s sure going to be another lovely digital scroll for you all too💯

So here comes the protagonist “The Newspaper Girl”! 🗞️

It was around quarter past 5 when I just came down for my morning walk and jogging. It was drizzling and the aroma of the soaked soil around was making the dawn even more pleasant in that residential complex alongside the Western Ghats. Sun rays were just about to gleam peeking through the bunch of grey clouds. Embracing the serenity, I kept on stepping ahead to explore the roads that were new to me too! There were less of honks and horns, a few joggers, some two wheelers roaming around carrying groceries and newspapers.

Just amidst the scanty travelers, out shiningly came this lean stature girl on an apparently 20-year-old model of TVS two-wheeler carrying this whole bunch of newspapers. She caught my sight as amongst all she was the only one riding that “newspaper bike” amongst all others
of the other gender. For me, that was the first such acquaintance. So, I couldn’t stop following her way and wanted to explore more about her, so I started strolling faster to catch up with her. Grateful enough to her first buyer on the way, as she stopped her bike nearby an apartment block and swiftly climbed up the steps to deliver the newspaper.

She was back in a jiffy, started the bike again with a kick and rode away whooshing for her next delivery. I
somehow wanted to talk to her but held myself back thinking she might get late for her day’s planned newspaper delivery and may be after that she may have to go for some other work as well. As she rode away and lost my sight, I kept on pondering that she might be the only bread earner for the family, she might be racing across the roads throughout the day, who all must be there in her family, and till I finished ample no. of steps and achieved the day’s PAI, that bike girl with a peach stole covering her face occupied my mind.

I stayed at that place for two days where I was on an official tour, so the next morning also, I was intrigued to spot her during my dawn visit to the less known roads. I took the same path in anticipation of spotting her again thinking that I might take a few seconds of her schedule to know more about her that day! But I couldn’t find her around even though I wandered near that apartment where she delivered the newspaper the previous day for a few minutes.

She might have delivered there a little early that day, or whether she came that day at all or not, I couldn’t know! Howsoever it was, she had left an indelible mark on my heart and soul as I saw her breaking social stigmas on the conventional “Newspaper Boy”.

Some of the buyers might not even know that while they are fast asleep or yawning and waking up to a bed tea, there is this lean, sharp eyed girl who drops in their balcony the today’s headlines.

Many of them still might be thinking it is done by whom they call “Newspaper Boy”! I still don’t know whether “The Newspaper Girl” concept is trending at that place but for me, she was the only one I’ve seen till date, doing that. She must be waking up slightly before the dawn to ensure timely newspaper deliveries and what she might be delivering/baking/cooking/serving/cleaning/selling/studying… for the rest of the day, I’m still keen to know as she made me proud at the first instance of her sight!

Or was she filling up for her sick father/brother that day…? I don’t know, but whatever it was, I still feel happy thinking about her, and I fondly remember her as “The Newspaper girl”!

So much so, that on my next tour to that place, I look forward to, and would love to spot her again. And this time, I won’t resist poaching upon a few seconds off her schedule to know My Newspaper Girl better to feature her in my upcoming post again…

Hope you all also would want to know her better, if in destiny, you surely will..

Hoping to get back to you soon with more lessons and experiences that make you smile and ponder over rethinking and reimagining people and lives!

Yours

Shru!