I was out in the market and i suddenly felt some one pulling me from the back. on turning round i saw this small child ( you can see her in the picture below ) with just that shawl around her asking for alms. It broke my heart........she must be about 3-4 yrs old.......looked up to me in her crystal clear innocent black eyes with all hopes pined on me......asking me for some money to be put in her bowl. It was heart breaking......i remember the children in our homes, who have never learnt what is to "Want"..... because they have affordable parents......having all their whims and fancies fullfilled...specially if both the parents are with jobs......they would try to give in to what ever the little ones demand.......guilt plays a major role here.....and then its an emotional market too we have there....... these street children , who don't have even a roof over their head...may be often going to bed hungry......not knowing when will their next meal come???? I was quite surprised actually to see quite a few beggars in the town this time.......Wondering where they came from??? Because in Shillong , we really didn't have many of them....in fact when we were in school we knew the few regular beggars in the town.....and often we use to carry old clothes or food to them.And yes,in the beggars community , a local beggar is a rare sight...... the locals here beleive that as long as you have your hands, its a sin to beg......all types of jobs are considered honourable work where you can get paid.And like all times , when i had my dinner that night, this little child kept coming up in my thoughts wondering if she went to bed hungry????
11 comments:
That would be a heart breaking sight. Very hard to remove from your mind. So sad, as this does go on all over the world. Thank goodness in our little town we don't have anything like that, but in a city closer to us, there are homeless people living on the streets. I can't even begin to imagine what their lives are like.
Touched me ..... Also saddening ..... Reality does bite at times !!!
Its never easy when you come across something like this.We are so busy in our day to day lives that we are just left with sympathy and nothing else for these children...they for sure need much more then just our sympathy I guess...I feel even you bloggers can make a difference through your blogs....now that you have got it on your blog, I hope you actually start doing something for them...
good b/w captures with lots of things 2 ponder upon
sigh !
it sure is sad and in mumbai it is terrible. begging has become a fine art and a profession to so many..
sad indeed
surely reality bites.....good one Nitu
Yep Rahul said the rite words.. Reality Bites. The problem is..one person can't change the world..Sad but true...besides...I believ this is all destiny..cant fight destiny,can u?
Btw, remember little Mary that had a little Lamb?? Well,She's a big girl now. Come on over, check out wot she's up to lately. I'm sure u'd enjoy this. :-)
shows yr clean heart..friend..that's why they said teach a man how to fish, not to eat fish..just travel from mumbai to chennai in a 2nd class..a minimum of 500 such alms seekrs will tap your shoulders asking for money..and then poverty sells...for many filmmakers..
thats the reality which we have to face even if v want to ignore it....that was very well captured & a good reminder to all of us that we still have long way to overcome dis & path ahead is steep
Very Good post
Nitu,
I got behind in my blog reading. This post reminds me of someone who spoke to a teen Sunday school class I taught. She was teaching them things she'd learned from going to India, and showing slides. I don't remember where she was there, but she talked about people using grape leaves for plates.
She also mentioned that some parents maim their children so people will feel sorry for them and give money to them when they were begging. This was a number of years ago. I hope it's not happening anymore. Do you know about that?
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