Dreaming a long dream with open eyes the old man reflected upon his past life. He grew from childhood to youth, to this old age, experiencing the changing world. The childhood was all fun and play; the trees were never tall that he could not climb his way. The mangoes and guavas were within his reach; he enjoyed every bite of that self-earned fruits without paying a single penny. The falls and injuries, the scratches and the slaps were part of his merry childhood; the marks wear off, but the memories remain alive. He did not go to school, for the nature taught him everything. The changing seasons taught him when to venture out and when to remain inside. Time made him aware of the harsh realities of life. When his father died, his mother wept, and he wept too. But this death in the family took away a part of his childhood.

He grew into an adult to help his mother in her labor in the fields and farms. The pleasing jingle of coins earned out of wages gave him pride and fear; pride to own something, power that money brings, and fear of losing it. He also became aware of its inadequacy to treat his mother in her last illness. Nature took away his mother for want of the same money that he was so lovingly attached to. Poverty was the name given to this fact of life.

As a young man without loving shelter of parents, now once again he felt lonely. But the nature had shown him the solution in the form of a new relationship and companionship. The animals freely moved together in couples, and our man also brought a bride under his roof.

The real hardship now started. The carefree childhood merged into stressful youth of drudgery and hard work. Howsoever hard he and his wife labored there was always that deficiency of one rupee to complete 100 after 99! Fulfillment always eludes, both the rich and the poor! In this attempt to bring fullness and satisfaction in life he brought two children in his home. And like his childhood, they also played, carefree.

Years passed by, and in the third labour his wife died. A drop of tear appeared in the corner of his eye, for he knew the silent suffering of his better half for year after years. She had fed him and his two sons while she herself remained half starved. The third pregnancy was unwanted for her undernourished frame was incapable of bearing this extra burden.

The factory had started spreading its glamour in the nearby city. The old man's sons, now young and energetic, deserted him to reach attractive glamour of 'working in the factory'. There they will follow life pattern as their father, as shown in this picture, had gone through.

Today unable to labour or work, the old man sits half-naked, half-covered, in the wintry cold of the evening of his life reflecting upon how the cycle of time passes off making a child an old man.