Two Heart-shaped Balloons

Certain incidents don’t just remain in your head. They keep hammerring your head like a migraine.
When I was in Delhi, my friends and me used to walk from the bus stop to where we stayed. In the hot sun, after a long day and dreading what awaited us as lunch, we trudged slowly going over the incidents that happened that day, our monetary condition, cracking sad jokes, singing aloud (yes, we used to do that sometimes even jiving to it on the street) or generally silently mulling over something on our own.
On one such hot and very normal afternoon, my friend and me (we were only two that day and I don’t remember why) were walking home discussing the usual-our lunch of course, but that’s another story which I promise not to regale u with. We had to walk through these lanes for about ten minutes and in one of those lanes a construction was in progress.Lots of laborers toiling under the sun: women who were hardly yet women but already with a load on their heads (the bricks), on their waist (their children) and on their hearts (their life) and children happily playing in the hot burning sand which to us, literally radiated heat. As we neared the place, we saw three women (I could have sworn they were younger to us) and five to six children: various heights and ages but none more than age five. They were what seemed to be haggling with a balloon seller. You see these balloon fellows often, who sell this heart shaped red balloons (now an object of amusement after a recent hit movie) the price of each balloon, a steep ten rupees per balloon. It was not even a gas balloon. The negotiations had obviously failed and the balloon seller was moving on. The children just stood there, staring longingly at the balloons while their mothers were trying to cheer up the younger ones (and themselves too). What came over me and my friend that day, I don’t know still. I can assure you I am no Good Samaritan. And when it comes to money, it’s not a question of choice but reality: all of us were perpetually broke!! One of the things we were actually discussing at that point was our financial state and the fact that it wasn’t even the second week of the month.

But just looking at those children we just instantly scrounged in our bags, found two ten rupee notes. Looking at each other and recognizing all the signs of madness, we silently said “what the hell!!” We bought two balloons from the guy, admonishing him for the prices at the same time. The children were still looking at us and their mothers turned away to get back to their work. It was then that we stopped them and gave the two youngest looking kids one balloon each. They awkwardly took the string in their hands( almost as if their holding it may burst the balloon) with the elder ones telling them to be careful and the others clamoring around them. It was then that I looked at one of the mothers who looked particularly young. She had a baby in her arms and was the one whom I saw consoling one of the younger ones when the balloon fellow had walked away. I asked her if she wanted a balloon too, not sure what I would do if she said yes.
She gave me a strange look and walked away. I still remember her face. Did we make her happy or did we just rub it in a little more? Did it all seem fake to her? Why did I do something like that in the first place?? My head hurts a little sometimes.