Chapter-2

The day was almost over, It was 6 O'clock in the evening when the canteen finally closed... Ram had to work past 6.30 to complete all the cleaning jobs and when he finish all his work, he was about to leave, he heard a voice calling him,. "Owner is calling you, go fast." It was Srikant another worker in the canteen. He is of the similar age as Ram somewhere between 13-15 , so Ram felt a kind of kinship with Srikant. At Srikant's message Ram quickly ran into the cabin. Inside the cabin Ragunath was sitting on a sofa and was focused on counting money 💰. When Ram opened the door with a knock sound Raghu looked at Ram with angry eyes and spoke.

"There will be no food for you today."

After a short pause He spoke again,

"Remember this as a warning next time you are late i will kick you out. Get out now."

Ram nodded his head in response without saying a single word he left the cabin while keeping him head low. He put the cleaning tools in one corner of the canteen and went out of the door while carrying the garbage bag. He walked out of the town and threw the garbage bag into the waste pit. When he returned back into the town he saw Srikant holding a wornout bread. He offered a slice of bread to Ram. "Thank you" said Ram. Without showing any hesitation or embarrassment Ram took the slice of bread and ate it. While living in slums for 3 months have tought him, there is no courtesy before food. He went straight to the road side tap and drank water from it. After drinking he take off the sack he was wearing like a dress and sat beneath the tap water to clean himself. He then took out a piece of metal from his sack and washed it well and put it back inside his sack and wore it like before. Ram has collected the piece of metal from the waste pit while duming the garbage. After dressing up again Ram started walking. He walked through the alleyway and finally reached at a shop at the end of the alley. There was pill of scarp meterials gathered beside the store . The place was a shop of a junk dealer. Ram went in. The shop owner looked at Ram with expressionless eyes and asked, " what ?"

Ram: "want to sell this metal?"

Showed him the piece of metal, the shopkeeper took the metal from his hand and looked at it carefully. He took out some coins from a box on his desk and placed on Ram's hand.

Shopkeeper, " You have more? "

Ram, "Not now! But i can get more latter, will you buy?'

Shopkeeper, "Sure"

Ram, "Ok, see you soon"

Ram left with a happy face and money in his sack. It was his first real earning. At canteen he made a deal to work for getting two meals a day . Finally Ram was able to find a way to earn real money and a sense of relief can be seen in his face clearly. Ram kept on walking and vanished into the dark alley away from the shope, unknowing of the smirk on the face of the shopkeeper .