Beggars are always found in each and every corner of our place. We see them asking for some alms on the roads lining up the traffic signals. One can't avoid meeting them even in gardens and parks especially their children stretching out their palms to the people over there. They might seem to be very poor but I am surprised to find an emotional satisfaction on their faces! They seem to be quite calm and content even in this situation of poverty...
Some of them are quite watchable related to the ways they try their level best to carve out some amount of money from the passersby! And, what more! They feel so offended & disappointed when given some coins as their expectations are from ten rupees onwards rather than in the olden times. Thus, they too have decided to keep up with the rising pricing policies!
But, these also include the crafty ones who send off their children to beg in order to spend the money collected in buying senseless things like alcoholic beverages and bidis while the poor children suffer inspite of the hard work for the whole day. Another saddest part is some of the children are being forcefully made handicapped in order to gain much sympathy from the public who in turn might shell out some money seeing the sorry state of the little ones.
I used to give money to these poor people but in time I have learned to provide them other basic necessities like food and clothes especially to the little children as I am not quite sure whether they will get the full benefit of it or whether it might be snatched away by their gang leaders. There is a poor man who has a handicapped wife. He comes every morning and lays down his wife on a wooden plank seating her on the streets so that every passerby might rain down some coins. Now in evening time, he spends out all the money collected in drinking alcohol.
Once a girl friend of mine was harassed by a poor girl begging for alms. My friend had angered the beggar girl with her teasing comments due to which the poor girl made it a point to shell out money compulsorily from her. As a result, my friend was forced to provide her some money! Thus, we understood the angry character of the poor ones who like us do value their own respect...
There is a mixture of both bad and good ones among these beggars just like the others. I had met a poor woman with her kids and was curious enough to know the reason why they weren't trying to earn money by working for simple things like doing household work, preparing dhabas, etc. To this, she replied that it's nearly been a decade since they have started begging and have become addicted to it and so they prefer to live in this way rather than working anywhere. Such people are not ashamed to spread out their arms for money unlike us who would prefer to die rather than beg because we so are afraid of our family status in the public.....
The present era is also facing a problem in trusting these poor people as some of the crafty ones have adopted this method of begging to extract a lumpsum amount of money from the public. Interestingly, these beggars are somewhat fraudsters who already have a surprising deposit in their respective bank accounts !! In short, beggars have somewhat turned out to be millionaires rather than us who run 24×7 to earn our daily bread and butter!!
So, next time never ever underestimate the hidden treasure of a bhikhari's Katori !!
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