pilgrim’s blog

The glass bangles of all possible hues decorated the shelves of the little shops giving the street housing them an aura of a fairy land. On all earlier occasions I have browsed these shops like crazy for the bangles that would match perfectly with the colour of my dress. As was the custom I visited the street this time also but the glass bangles that stole my heart by capturing the sun's fierce rays and reflecting them softly seemed to have lost their earlier charm. Their tinkling sound did not appear musical to me any more. The glass bangles that till recently represented happiness, gaiety and celebration were trying to tell a different story.

Very few of us would be knowing that behind these beautiful creations, work several pairs of little hands that would hardly be lucky to beautify their wrists with the bangles that steal so many hearts irrespective of age ,colour and creed. The small units that produce these bangles in the number of crores, the demand for which increases during festival times are also thriving centres of child labour. During these times the children work day and night so that they can each make at least three hundred bangles a day and take home rupees fourteen or fifteen. These children work incessantly moulding the molten glass to bangles of bewitching colours, braving the scorching heat of the furnaces.

So next time when these beautiful bangles adorn our wrists and the sheen and tinkling make us happy let us not forget the little hands that are neither soft nor beautiful in the physical sense which work hard to give us this happiness.If ever given a chance I would hold these little hands in mine and kiss them. And I would see God……