It's not uncommon to find beggars at traffic lights and signals in Bangalore. In fact, there is a highly organised and rich beggar mafia that rules the city. The mafia thrives on exploitation of poor ang gullible individuals, much like other organized crime gangs do. To get an idea of how the beggar mafia works, I recommend watching 'Naan kadavul". Based on all these facts, I don't show sympathy to beggars because I will be indirectly supporting the thugs who exploit them.
Today was an exception. At one of the traffic lights that I stop every day, there is this woman who stands on the footpath and begs. She is not a typical beggar - she looks healthy, wears decent clothes and the only deformity that one can notice about her is her limp. Since I see her everyday, I don't bother to give her any money, dismissing her as one of the end-points of the beggar mafia. Today I just smiled at her and asked 'aaraama' - a very colloquial 'how are you doing' . She narrated her story of why she begs before the lights turned green and I had to move. Yes, the traffic lights in Bangalore stay red that long.
Her story goes something like this - 'Got my daughter married by paying a huge dowry. Then I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes. Spent about a lakh (about $1500) on hospital bills, and sold of all my jewellery. Now am left with nothing. Can't find work because of the bad health and too old to find a desk job. The only option is to stay with my daughter. I'd rather beg".
Here is a woman who is begging on the streets, just to preserve her integrity and self respect. It is so deep rooted in her mind that she shouldn't be a burden to her daughter and son-in-law. May be it's a cultural thing, may be it's not. Then she went on to tell about her caste and how every member of her caste has reached higher echelons, while she has to languish in the streets. Yet, she didn't have an ounce of sadness during the conversation. During the course of the conversation, she smilingly pointed to her feet and said 'that's flesh from my thighs transplanted to the feet during the surgery for sugar disesase " (diabetes is commonly referred to as sugar disease in south India).
I didn't know what to say other than 'hogli bidi, yaaraadru sahaaya maaDthare' (don't worry, someone will help), handed her some money and left. Yet another incident to remind me that there is always an inside story, not to jump to conclusions based on what you just see.
Today was an exception. At one of the traffic lights that I stop every day, there is this woman who stands on the footpath and begs. She is not a typical beggar - she looks healthy, wears decent clothes and the only deformity that one can notice about her is her limp. Since I see her everyday, I don't bother to give her any money, dismissing her as one of the end-points of the beggar mafia. Today I just smiled at her and asked 'aaraama' - a very colloquial 'how are you doing' . She narrated her story of why she begs before the lights turned green and I had to move. Yes, the traffic lights in Bangalore stay red that long.
Her story goes something like this - 'Got my daughter married by paying a huge dowry. Then I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes. Spent about a lakh (about $1500) on hospital bills, and sold of all my jewellery. Now am left with nothing. Can't find work because of the bad health and too old to find a desk job. The only option is to stay with my daughter. I'd rather beg".
Here is a woman who is begging on the streets, just to preserve her integrity and self respect. It is so deep rooted in her mind that she shouldn't be a burden to her daughter and son-in-law. May be it's a cultural thing, may be it's not. Then she went on to tell about her caste and how every member of her caste has reached higher echelons, while she has to languish in the streets. Yet, she didn't have an ounce of sadness during the conversation. During the course of the conversation, she smilingly pointed to her feet and said 'that's flesh from my thighs transplanted to the feet during the surgery for sugar disesase " (diabetes is commonly referred to as sugar disease in south India).
I didn't know what to say other than 'hogli bidi, yaaraadru sahaaya maaDthare' (don't worry, someone will help), handed her some money and left. Yet another incident to remind me that there is always an inside story, not to jump to conclusions based on what you just see.
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