The Retard...

"Please buy whatever u want to buy, as I may not open my shop tomorrow. My son is dead" said the shopkeeper in the Khajurahu main market area.

I was surprised to see his deadpan expression when he said the word " Dead". I asked him what had happened?

"He was first violated and then drowned in a well. He was just 7", was the reply with the same dead pan expressions. I found the whole conversation to be weird, so I bought whatever I wanted to buy and left his shop.

However, I did inquire about this incident at another shop in the market. I was told "yes that it is a true story but that guy is a retard".

I went back to his shop again, this time I knew what to do. I tried to talk him about the tragedy so that he could come out of the shock that apparently he was in. I inquired about his wife and how she was taking it. I tried to convince him that both of them should not feel guilty about this....and a few more words of wisdom on how to move on.

Deadpan expressions remained the same....no matter what I said.

Finaly, I asked him a stupid question.

"Why did you have just one? Why not more kids?"

"I wanted to provide proper education to him and raise him to be a big man...that's why I decided to have just one"

As I left his shop for the last time.....I knew who all were the retards.....

It wasn't him, that's for sure!!

(C) Shahid Parvez Sayed, Feb 6th at 10 am