43.3

While we were sitting and chatting on a roadside bench in Srisailam this figure was facing us and just sitting there, her eyes and feet exposed. I could see she was occasionally sobbing, not the sort to draw notice but just a hint of it. She was different from all other beggars, she didnt come to me for food or for money.
I sat there for almost an hour, wandered around an came back and she was still there. At the end I couldnt resist offering her something to eat.
I give it to her and she snaps at my hand food is all over the ground now. I sat on the bench again and quietly waited to see what she is going to do now. I knew she must be hungry.
And within ten minutes she gathers whatever was still wrapped in the newspapers and picked up what was on the ground and finished it all.
I came to know from a local guy then, that she is a mental or a crack as that chaiwala told me.