IT was another day at work and on my way to my office complex on a weekday morning, a scene unfolded in front of me and I felt a surge of pity.
A young petite girl was ahead of me, lugging a backpack which was visibly weighing her small frame down.
She definitely didn’t look like she was going on a camping trip.
I overtook her and there she was with a baby of about three months old, still in slumber.
The girl stopped at the nursery and rang the doorbell before she was greeted by the caretaker.
She handed the baby whose head and legs were, inadvertently, flowing carelessly from the mother’s small arms.
The backpack then went with the baby. I assumed the baby would be picked up by 6pm when nursery closes.
This is the typical life of young urban mothers who need go through the daily grind, five days a week, to earn meagre salaries to keep the family afloat.
In the urban setting, the need for both partners to earn has become imperative.
Running a family has become such a chore and it is no more a walk in the park and having kids is seen as a bigger burden with many young couples going childless as a matter of choice.
It is rueful, not because women have stepped out to engage themselves into the working world with eagerness and robustness to extend their radiance, but rather how the lower and middle income earners have to struggle to keep the family and work intact.
In this context, each of us in the older age bracket might have a gloomy story to tell of how we were raised against all odds.
But if you think the youngsters are having it easy now, think again!
Against this backdrop of those of us who are breaking our backs for a meal and feel deserving of what we own and enjoy in life and have that ethical responsibility that money which is not earned is not ours, we have the duplicitous ones who think otherwise.
The politicians’ world is consumed by money, power and authority and earning to deserve seems out of context and wallet flashing is done so blatantly without any fear for law and order.
It is both scandalous and disgraceful to see big money changing hands in the most deceitful of ways.
Most recently, there have been thunderous applause and messages of felicitations making their rounds joyfully as it appears justice has found its path, but then, what next?
If the money stolen could be recovered, there are 101 things we could probably do to help the B40 and M40 groups living the rot of a life in big cities.
I refuse any excuse that in a country of just 32 million people, it is not possible to eradicate poverty and bring it down to naught.
The country has lots more to worry about with immediacy, and coronavirus is still thriving deceptively with the majority of people disillusioned and not realising the gravity of the situation.
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