Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas eve. This is holiday season. Most of the employees are on the vacation. The building is quiet though Christmas songs are echoing all over the places. I am sitting on my desk and in front of me is a big screen displaying the images from the surveillance cameras. For hours I have not seen any movement of the people on the grounds as well. The whole ground is covered with snow and ice. No birds are seen fluttering from one tree to another. However, two bunnies sneak in to the bush of spruce trees just now. 

After ten minutes, an image looms on the camera #25 behind the Telus stage. I hold the joys and zoom the image where I can see a man walking lazily towards the stage. I know that he cannot get into the building because all the entrance doors were shut down. The subject walks towards the North entrance and looks up the roof. Then he yawns and scratches his back. Then he checks the astray, picks up some smoke butts and moves towards south. He often limps while walking on his bare foot. It is below five-degree calciols outside. He is not dressed up for the weather. He walks all around the building looking for any doors open to get in to the building to warm up himself. But all the doors were closed and locked.  

After fifteen minutes, I pull the camera #15 which covers the south side of the building. He is still limping and pulling the doors. He checks the garbage bin where he finds a couple of recycles. He takes them out of the bin and crushes them on the ground with his bare foot. He throws them in the black garbage bag, holds on his shoulder and walks towards the casino.  

Once he enters the Casino’s area, I continue to check the screen pulling different zones of the cameras. There are more than 25 cameras in the building property. I noticed a girl coming from the LRT. She is about five foot tall and lean. She is wearing a jacket looks not warm enough to protect from the cold. She is holding a coffee cup in her right hand. She hangs out for about ten minutes at the entrance. She looks as if she is waiting for someone coming out of the LRT so that she can ask smoke or some bucks to buy smoke.  

My judgement turns to be a truth when a guy comes out, she extends her hands and the man gives something to her. At the same moment another guy comes from the northside of the station. He stands under the statue, looks around and makes a phone call. Soon, there appears a third person. All of them stand on a round circle. The girl comes to them exchanges a bag and quickly runs into the station. Both the guys walk towards the medic door of the coliseum building. The camera of that area does not cover them. I waited for about ten minutes for them to come out. Then go to the washroom. When I return to the desk, they are seen standing by the LRT gate. To my surprise, there are two police officers standing right there. When I pull the camera closer, I see the hand cuffs in the hands of those two boys. 

At the same moment, I see the motion detected in the main kitchen. There are no staffs tonight. All the contractors from the day are gone home already. I pull the camera closer zoom to identify the object that triggered the sensor of the camera. As I wait and watch a few minutes, I see a big mouse running into the kitchen. Mouse? I feel disgusting. The main kitchen where last week tons of food prepared for the Christmas party is infested by the mice. It would be a normal for the barn or some other stores. But in the kitchen is really bad. The mouse has been running to and forth four times by the time I go to the restaurant for coffee.  

While driving to the MacDonald I do not see anything on the road. As soon as I reach to the restaurant, I see a man sitting next to the garbage bin eating some foods from the container. Really? Is it possible to the people of the rich country like Canada eating from the garbage bin? On the day of Christmas? How some people are having lavish party in the star hotels and some other citizen of the same land eating from the garbage at the day of Christmas. I remember my festivals. I have never seen people so poor that they are looking for the shelter in the isolated building ad searching the food in the garbage bin.  

I remember our festivals like Dashain and Tihar. We always celebrate with the slogan of brotherhood, family gathering, carnivals in the public. We generously divide food among the neighbors and relatives. I have never seen people eating from the bin at the time festival. We care each other so much. I feel sorry for the people living here.  

People exchange the gifts among the friends, enjoy the Christmas party, take time for family and children. But birds, bunnies and squirrels doing their course. They look all equal. There is no powerful bunny which controls the small bunnies. There is no birds living different life style. But man is different from each other in term of race, religion and culture. They are divided by the wealth, race and religion. Rich are way rich and poor are very poor. Christmas is celebrated as a symbol of love and free from sin. Are we free from the sin in the real sense?   No. We are celebrating the festivals but not celebrating the humanity. I slammed the door after me and sat silently on the chair.