Today's article would start and end with some scenes from the streets of Kabul and I would leave it to you to draw the conclusion out of these.
Weather was hot and it was almost 5 in the evening. Four friends came out of their office and were about to get into their car when an ice-cream seller came. He was an old man and the long day's hard work had squeezed all his energy. Tiny drops of sweat shined on his forehead while his wet clothes showed that the drudgery of the day had absorbed most of his energy and transferred them into his clothes. He was hardly able to push forward his bicycle. The tightened wrinkles on his forehead showed that he was too much tired and absolutely weary.

When they collected their ice-creams and paid the money, a neighbor came out of his house. He had some pieces of bread wrapped around a sweet dish, made like a sandwich in a tray. He was distributing it as a charity. He gave one piece to each man and when he reached to the fourth one, the bread finished and he returned home. The ice-cream seller was looking at this with an expectation.

A man noticed it and handed over his part of bread to him. He smiled and said to him, "God bless you my son, if your friend does not want to eat it either, it would be my dinner". The rest of the three also handed over their pieces to him. They were expecting a luxurious meal at home while these bread pieces could have fed the old man who appeared hungry and much needy. He put them in a shopping bag and hurried away.

Some friends came out of one of the most expensive restaurants of the city and then one of them suggested to go to a nearest park and have some ice cream or juice. Although they were already full but they drove the car towards a park. As they came out of the car, a boy of hardly 10 years came running and asked their permission to clean their car till they come out of the ice-cream parlor, which was granted. They sat and ordered ice-cream but none of them was able to eat even half of his part. In the meantime, another boy came.

He had a pack of chewing gums in his hand and pleaded them to buy one. One of them bought some which made the child look happy. It was almost 10 of the night and now he was not going to return home bare-handedly. His hungry eyes time and again stuck on the ice-cream plates that were left with utter negligence. When he was offered to eat it, he combined all the remaining ice-cream into a plate and went to a chair where he ate it with the greatest of joy. The child was having a schoolbag on his shoulders and he told that after coming from school at 12, he used to sell chewing gum in the park and returned home late at night.

When the men came out of the park and sat in the car, the boy came running to them from other side of the road where he was busy in cleaning another car. The car was very nicely cleaned and he gave a broad smile when he was handed over 50 Afghanis. With this smile, he slowly walked to the other car and resumed his work.

A man is walking in the streets of Kabul, passing by the shops and homes. This is afternoon and heat of the sun has forced everyone to take shelter in a shady place and thus roads and streets are deserted and silence of afternoon is disturbed by a car that swiftly passes away. Sun on his head is making the blood boil in his head and he tries all his best to walk under the roadside trees, but it is also a rare luxury. Then he enters a street where there are shops of iron door and window makers. Some of the workers are busy with their work while some are busy in taking their lunch or sit inside their shops.

There are ready and half made doors, shutters, windows and other such things outside the shops. Outside a shop is a boy busy in painting a newly-made iron door. It is surprising to see that he is working under the direct rays of sun, the reason for which he could not understand or dare to ask. Drops of sweat flow down his forehead and after reaching his nose get detached and land on land where it is immediately absorbed. His face flushes with the heat of sun, and the hard work. The man stands there in silence, feeling utter sympathy for the suffering of the boy for a moment or two and then advances forward.

This scene is again of a house in a street and a government school is very close to it. From early morning till late in evening, students of different ages pass by this house, either going to school or returning home. Every summer, in afternoon when second shift of school is finished and students slowly start walking to their houses, a kind and old lady comes out of this house, opens wide the gate and calls some 10-15 students into her house. She takes them to her garden where there are present about a dozen trees of cherry and apple.

These trees are now full of ripe fruit and bend downwards with the weight of the fruit. Students start collecting cherries and apples and the lady helps the small one's whose hands cannot reach to the fruit. After some time, students put the fruit in their bags, smile and thank the lady and leave to their houses. The kind lady smiles at them and closes the gate of the house.

This is a road-side stall where 'Bolanis' are sold; cooked dough with potato fillings in it. Bolanis are cooked and put in front of the stall from where people of different ages pick them, eat one or more of them and pay the seller before leaving. Each Bolani is of 5 and in some cases, of 10 Afghanis. It is almost lunch time and people who cannot afford to eat in a restaurant throng around the stall. Students whose houses are far, laborers, shop assistants, old and poor and many more find it a blessing to get a meal in just 10-20 Afghanis. These stalls are so kind, comforting and pleasing to such helpless people that people come to them like they used to come to prophets in old times.

A building is under construction and workers are busy in their work in the scorching heat of the sun. Twice or thrice in a day, an old man from a neighboring house sends his youngest son with a jug full of cold and sweet juice to them. As the child starts approaching them and calls them, their stressed foreheads relax and they smile to each other and slowly approach the child who enjoys to fill the juice into the glasses. As the jug empties, child returns to his house and laborers to their work, both smiling.

Poverty is everywhere and poor are too much in need of small consolation and comfort. A handful of fruit, a glass of cold water, a piece of bread and few things like these that are nothing for many can make a big difference to many others. What a pity it is that we see so many such scenes every day but we feel nothing and thus do nothing. Feeling other's misery is what qualifies you to be a human and doing something to ease some one's misery is what you owe to all the bounties being bestowed to you.