One Winter Morning At the Village Road

On a winter morning, the village road was quiet. Rickshaw puller Tolmu was then fast sleeping on the grass by the roadside behind his rickshaw drunk from the country liquor vendor. Some goats grazed near him. Cattle grazed on the stubble in the paddy fields by the roadside, and some stood lazily, bearing the cold. At about nine when the sun shone dispelling the cold, people began to take to the roads, groups of students were walking to school. Tolmu was still asleep, enjoying the warm sunlight. Yet not one wondered,what happened to him, for they often saw such a sight there. But his neighbour Fatima laughed quietly as she passed by in the auto rickshaw seeing him After some time, he waked up and soon remembered- He was to deliver four bushels of paddy from the tenant farmer to the landlord before the latter went to the office. But the time was late .