Yet another week day and I'm on my way, driving down to the office. The signal blinks orange briefly before finally turning to red and bringing the traffic to a halt, well almost, except for a handful who honk and rush away as if their life depends on they jumping yet another signal!
As the crowd grumbingly await their turn, the next bout of business has already started. Women carrying babies trot about asking for money to feed the kids. Old men and others horrifyingly disabled move around pleading for change. Urchins run about the vehicles, peering into some and prodding others for money. This is a daily sight, in almost all the city junctions that are even slightly traffic-worthy. This business happens with unbelievable uniformity - people zip in, do their bit and zip out as the signal turns green. One cannot help but notice this similarity to the pit stop of the Formula Racing cars and its nano-second precision
All these bizarre comparisons apart, it is heart-rending to see young and old people toiling the streets for change, by volition or by force. Day-in and day-out they get hardened in the grind of this world and grow up as brazened souls with a can-do-anything-for-money attitude. In my opinion, the only way to cure this is to say NO and discourage all forms of begging.
As the Chinese proverb goes: "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Whatever little contribution you'd want to make, direct it towards rehabilitation of these people and in aiding them earn a decent living. When people uniformly stop yielding to begging, the needy would be forced to look at other means.
No comments:
Post a Comment