When we were small, my sister used to make the most amazing handmade greeting cards. They were simply too good. She would use spare things at home and make beautiful greeting cards. There used to sparkle in different colours, lace, those artificial small stars and moons, coloured pencils and so many other things. She would sit for hours and make greeting cards.

As a teenager my sister dreamt of doing something creative. She would look for advertisements in newspapers. She wanted to design greeting cards. She always said that this was her calling in life but the nearest she reached to her calling was working as a sales girl at a neighbouring gift shop.

I know I am her brother but I am not trying to be partial. I remember she used to make those cards and try and sell them to her classmates in school. But you know how kids are like- they always made fun of her. She also tried selling them to greeting card shops. But it was not much of a success. Everybody wanted to have those ready made cards.

My sister has worked many jobs to keep our house going. I wish somebody could ever appreciate her talent. So many years have passed now. Yesterday I went to visit her. She was there as always running about and arranging things. Her husband is not well, she has two kids and she works to pay the bills. When we were sitting alone and chatting, i just casually mentioned about the days when she used to make cards. She smiled and shrugged it off. But I couldn’t miss the tears that had welled up in her eyes.

It is so cruel. It is sheer waste of talent and hard work. I wish I could do something. I wish I could tell the world who my sister is. No- she didn’t deserve to be a receptionist at a pompous business man’s office. She should have been sitting on a nice seat at a big office designing cards and making a rainbow of colours. No- she didn’t deserve this.

What should I do? I don’t know anything. I am myself so small a man. I feel bad about my helplessness. There must be someone or something that can change things. My sister should not spend her life doing a good-for- nothing job.

Let me think. I must think now. But let me first take your leave now. Please take care. Bye.

The ‘common man’ approached many small time companies involved in making gifts and showed them his sister’s handmade greeting cards that he had preserved for so long. But nothing worked. It was a chance remark by one of the people at those companies that set the ball rolling.

The person told him about a school that needed an art teacher. He was very sure that they would love to have so talented a person as their faculty. The sister reluctantly appeared for the interview and to her great surprise was welcomed with open hands.

It wasn’t a big job but it was something after her own heart. Common Man was happy to see colours again in her sister’s life. Life was good.