In 15 Minutes

“In 15minutes, I die!” Sam almost reminded himself.

He was walking through the empty streets of Kolkata. Hardly he could see any living beings, as one must be insane or homeless to be walking through the streets at this time of the night in the chill of late December. Even the eve of Christmas could bring enough excuse to bring people out of their house.

Sam had lost all his hopes of living his life. He lost his job the last month on the ground of a massive scandal. The fastest rising company under the leadership of Sam just faced the biggest low of its lifetime. They had to declare bankruptcy. Sam lost his job, his house, his money, his life. All of a sudden he was left with millions of rupees of loan to repay, with two options left in front of him, either go to jail after fighting the case or die. He chose the second option.

Finally he stood on the connecting line of Kolkata, Howrah Bridge. All his memories of life came back like a flash back. There was nothing good in it. “Life dumped me.”  he thought. A year back he was the most talked about personality in the entire IT sector of the country. He was the man responsible for crowning Kolkata as the IT centre of India.

“Sir, please give me some money! I didn’t eat anything for three days!” said a young boy, taking Sam by surprise.

“Why haven’t you eaten anything for so long?” Sam asked, coming out of his reverie.

“I didn’t have any money. All my money went in disposing my father’s body in the holy Ganga.”

Sam was shocked hearing this. Now he looked carefully at the boy. He was thin, too thin possibly suffering from mal nutrition. He looked like any other kid of the streets of Kolkata. Deprived of childhood, deprived of food, to hell, deprived of life! Sam felt pity for the young fellow.

“How did your father die?” Sam inquired.

“He had a disease. I don’t know its name, but he used to spit blood.”

“Ohh! And what about your mother?”

“She died when she was giving birth to me. That’s the only thing I know about my mother.”

Sam was feeling suffocated. The kid was living an absolute hopeless life. He wanted to get away from him. But he found himself still talking to him.

“How do you live? I mean from where do you get money?”

“I try and find part time jobs. Lifting heavy things, cleaning places. It does good enough for me and my younger sister. And if I can’t find any job for a few days then I beg or even steal some times.”

“You have a sister even? And you think of supporting her?” Sam asked, amazed.

“Yes, why are you looking stunned sir? I think you are not believing me. I used to earn enough for me, sister and father to eat and live happily. You know, one day I will find a charming prince and give my sister to him, and he will keep her happily ever after! Any way sir, I think I must leave, I have more work to do.”

“Wait! I didn’t give you any money yet!”

“But just moments ago you were thinking that you don’t have anything left in your life, so I see you still have enough things to offer others!”

A cold sweat ran down the spine of Sam even in this chilly night. How could the kid know this! Just then he realized what he had! He had this damn life. This life to make it count. If a kid with no money, no home could live happily then why can’t he? It’s not about money, its about how you see your life! You need to find ways to be happy! Sam turned to give the kid some money. But he was gone!

Who was he? Just a kid who guessed his state of mind by seeing his expression or was he something else, "someone" else? But it didn’t matter to Sam! He had lots of work in hand. He had to fight back for his life! May be he wasn’t the happiest man on this earth but definitely not the saddest! It’s only a matter of time, when I will reach back on top, Sam thought and started walking towards the court, the dawn was coming!