Sunday, March 22, 2015

Give and takeaway

You feel bad for the beggars at the traffic signal, don't you? So, what do you do about it? 
Let me take a guess.
1. You offer money hesitatingly.
2. You offer money promptly.
3. You ignore them.
4. You keep looking at them without paying them. 

Yes, the word is pay in case you haven't noticed it yet. We pay them off because we feel guilty. That's the price we pay for being better off—strictly comparatively speaking—with the vehicle we are in/on at the point of confrontation. But there's a mighty catch in place. The so-called beggars are thorough professionals. They take their work seriously. Just like any of us would about a career. Do you REALLY think they'd go back to not being beggars if they hit a jackpot in their daily/monthly/yearly collections? Unfortunately, going by the NGO records, they won't. At least that's not what happens in Indian cities. However handicapped or disparaged they appear, they know they are simply making a living on the kind-cum-unkind roads. And it's totally up to you whether you'd want to part away your hard-earned/not-so-hard-earned cash. Because either way, it's not a guilt trip as you like to believe. Both the parties are merely doing their job. 

MO: When i have two coins with me and there's a beggar in front of me, i give one away and keep another to myself. That way, both the beggars are happy. 

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