That Old Man       

                                      Raj Ray

 The sun burnt his shrunken face, a hot gritty dust covered his frail body, he was coughing violently. Suddenly blood oozed out from his wizened mouth. Wiping the blood stained mouth he looked at the brazen sky and muttered, ‘You can’t look like this .The sea will send the rain.’

    He was holding a small flat wooden box in one hand.But starvation made him so weak that he could walk no longer and fainted. Some greedy vultures were circling above hoping that soon they could make a feast.

     Luckily he fell on the border of a small town.

    A passer-by took pity on him and admitted him to hospital, and paying some money to a doctor requested, ‘Look after him till he recovers.’

   After regaining consciousness the old man first asked, ‘Where is my box?’

‘What’s the matter?’ the doctor asked.

‘I kept some seeds in a small box,’ he answered.

 ‘What will you do with the seeds, old man?’ the doctor felt curious.

‘I’m waiting for the rain. I’ll sow them in my land.’

     But the doctor would know that this man had reached the final stage of cancer. But he didn’t reveal it to his patient.

     His health was quickly deteriorating and finally that day arrived when he was dying. He looked at his box that was kept on a table in front of his bed. He requested the doctor to take him beside the window. Slowly he scattered the seeds on the lawn of the hospital.

That night he died.

Next year the rain came earlier; then in spring some saplings came up there.