The Exodus

A small boy with a rope in his left hand walks on. He is wearing a shirt which is torn in a few places, a shirt that is soiled ruddy from the mud of his land. He wears the shirt without buttoning it, so it can glide along with the wind as he walks. He is wearing his brother's trousers, they are a bit big for him, and he frequently has to bring his right hand down and tug at them to keep them from going below his hips. His hair is uncombed, mucus lies waiting at the end of his nostril, tickling him, threatening to ooze down. His right hand will attend to his nose in a few seconds, after it has pulled the trousers up to a comfortable height. The trousers, will again, start it's inevitable descent. His left hand, in the meantime holds the rope. On the other end of the rope is a dog. Thin, shabby and famished, it is an image of what it's master would look like if he were a mongrel.

"Brother" he calls "Are we there yet?". His brother, lean but muscular, carrying a burden, is a newly turned man. The hostilities around had helped the boy grow into one. Son to a dead mother And guardian to her other child, he strangely does not feel alone at this time. As when he looks around and sees the multitudes treading along with him, what he sees are brothers to whom god has bequeathed the same fate. An unfortunate faction which other men could take the liberty to banish. Loneliness is not something he feels. Fear though, is very much present. Moving away from a place so familiar (and hence secure) is not a very easy thing to do. And it is even more daunting when you do not know where you are going.

And there also lies the burden. On the cart that he is pulling, along with a few possessions and rations, lies the burden of the soceital morals, domestic upbringing and humanity,in the form of his grandfather. A babbling idiot who had become too old use his body or be in his senses and was better off dead. A dead weight which he unwillingly chose to carry owing to the respect that had been inculcated into him.

"Brother, Are we there yet?"