Pickpocket is a story taken from a collection of stories (Half a Rupee: Stories) by Gulzar, and offered here as an independent read. It is from part seven, which deals with death and how people face it. This one is about a couple that waited long to have a child, and are anxiously or eagerly expecting one now.
The man returns home one day to be informed by a neighbour that his wife has gone into labour and is in the hospital. He is stressed enough that this is several days too soon, and keeps returning to his home to change or collect his wallet, and then is unable to find a vehicle quickly to take him; when it is time to pay, he realises his wallet has been picked by a pickpocket when he was paying more attention to getting to the hospital than to being safe from them in crowds of Mumbai.
At the hospital after a time of anxiety he is faced by the doctor after the operation his wife needed due to complications, to be informed that the baby was still born, and at this he is unrepentant in addressing his "big guy above" and calling him the biggest pickpocket of all, not caring about blasphemy this time.
Saturday, April 5, 2014.
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