The meaning of life.....

The shabbily dressed but familiar figure came and begged for money from the bystander standing next to me. I was waiting to catch the bus to my home. She looked at my face came to me. I asked where she was going?? The bystander looked at me with confusion!! A well dressed guy talking to a beggar as a friend, he might have thought. Yes, she is Kunjammu... the wife of the coconut climber, vasu, of our area. She has just recovered from an accident in which a car hit and she broke her femur. I think after the accident she has made begging a side business for I had never seen her begging before.
Vasu may be about 70 years old and she too may be that old. With no tooth and a very thin built she looks cute like my 100 day old son!!! When may parents came here from Bangalore for the post retired life in 1996 she was not as she is now. Then she walked upright. She was always pestered then by l'il children going to madrasa, for she was insane. One noon she stripped herself and lay flat on the road in front of a bus. (I came to know later that the death of her sons had left her in this mental state.) She was taken to a rehabilitation center and she recovered remarkably well. She had a couple of goats which help her and Vasu to make a living.
Vasu is now too old to climb trees and so depends on govt sponsored old age pension. When my daughter was brought home after she was born, five years back, Kunjammu came to visit her. She asked my mother what my daughter's star (nakshathram) was?? My mother said- Pooram. With a wetness in her eyes she said "It is the star of my children, they died soon after birth. They were boys - twins!!" Before going she took a 50 rupee note and tried to place it in the hands of my daughter. I told her not to do it and told her that her visit was enough. To that she said that this is the achaaram!!!!!!! My mother placed the note back into her hands. WE were glad she took it back. The fifty rupee she extended may even take that family for two days, yet she was ready to part with it.
After the accident, Kunjammu is not able to look after the goats and the goats had been sold to meet the expenses for her treatment the rest was contributed by all of us in the locality. Her mobility has been restricted and she walks very slowly she needs a stick too.
As she slowly walked away from me telling that she will come for the naming ceremony of my son in Sept i felt sad. If her sons were alive today she wouldn't have to go around this way. I wondered what according to her would be the meaning of life??
I think she is luckier than me for she does not search the meaning of life like me.... i think about life and conclude that life may be meaning less and hence probably the motto need not be searched.
Yet our inherent limitation keeps us going