She Clings to her mother’s loosen cloth and shows her disagreement to ask for alms. Her prawning eyes though are always looking at passersby and their behavior. On a busy road both mother and daughter sit on the pavement and watch life moving on.
I have never seen them ever but until recently they have started to appear and make their presence felt. For sure, they come in the afternoon as I have seen them many times. They sit the whole day asking for whatever they can get from passersby. The girl is shy and keeps a veil around her face – a clear sign that this is oblivious to the life outside her mother’s protective cover. Just the other day she steps out may be the first time and crosses the busy road in a hurry and approaches a mother-daughter duo – fearlessly reminding herself of her own mother. Suddenly, she starts a communication with the lady who happens to come to the mart to purchase her monthly grossly with her daughter.
She starts to beg but with a peculiar grimace on her face , her eyes looking down out of shyness or the shame she has been made to face by her mother – The lady is soon convinced and gives a 10 rupee note to her with a warning not to beg – I can well analyze the whole predicament of the lady who according to me did because she cloned the situation fast and thought of the ‘beggar girl’ as an image of her own daughter- almost of same age. True to the situation, her own daughter threw a volley of questions towards her generous mother, which she had no option but to answer whilst they both unlocked their car and sped away in no time!
Left behind was the little girl with a 10 Rupee not in her hand and a task to cross the road back and pass on her first beg for the day to her mother – who already had a pouch full of paraphernalia of her askance from many pedestrians who went passed by that pavement where she was sitting.
The sense of greed had just creeped
in and the little girl was again reminded to beg more but with some stark
instructions – this time the ‘Prey’ was me 😊 . She again crossed the road and directly came
towards me asking for alms. The ‘Script’ was thus
“ bhaiya paise dedo.” – [ Give me
some Money.]
As I was noticing the begging
drama but stood helpless and obligated by looking at her innocence and her helplessness,
I asked her “ Beta, Kitne Chahiye.” –[How much you want].
Guess what the answer came – “Bhaiya
Dus Rupay!” – [ Ten Rupees!], as if that was the only benchmark set by her
mother to ask for – nothing more, nothing less.
I further asked her “ Beta School
nahi jatey aap, kaunsi class mein padtey ho?, aapko achcha lagta hai bheek
mangna aise? Aapki mummy mana nah karti?” – [ Don’t you go to school? And In
which class you study, don’t you feel ashamed whilst you beg and ask for money?]
She gave an answer straight from
her heart “ Bhaiya, khane ko nahi hai ghar par, school band ho gaya hai , Ma ne
nahi bheja fir, kaapi kitab nahi hai mere pass, paise bhi nahi hai!” – [ I don’t
have anything to eat at home, school is closed now and I don’t have books either
nor money!]
This time, I knew, her answer was
not scripted and it poured my heart out of love and compassion for what she was
going through in her life at this age!
What I did, I did but such a
situation tore my heart rock bottom – Destiny has an alternative plan for her,
I didn’t ask her name in a hurry , may be next time when I forge a bond with her
– my little friend, I make sure that she gets much more than she deserves –
till then I wait for that meeting to happen!
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