The Art Of Begging.
(Source: Vijay Times, VT CAMPUZZ Pg 4)
Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal
There is an art involved in the pursuit of begging, as a profession. The beggar works his way into making you feel guilty for not parting with a few paises from your pocket. And before you know it you are lending those coins to them, because, it's good for Karma.
There was a time when performers at street corners would walk on ropes, blow fire through their mouth and even dance with bears and snakes. They were professionals in their own right and deserved the occasional alms they earned. The beggar would then pick up his performance equipments and move on singing and dancing to his own tune in front of another prospective donator.
The talent they possessed soon made way into a more emotional set-up. Maybe entertainment was not working; maybe the alms were not enough to take care of the basic needs. Professionalism gave way to desperation and we saw women holding children, children hold children, maimed individuals and naked infants clutching at their mothers' breasts, on the streets.
They would stare at you with desperate eyes, and hit on their stomachs, while you relished the occasional ice cream; making you feel miserable and you would slowly part with your change and sometimes… your ice cream.
Times have changed now, but no one seems to notice.
Brigade road and its surrounding areas sometimes seem like a scene from the mini-series "Carnivale". Hunchback, bare-chested men with their skins baking under the harsh sun lie inverted on a piece of cloth; boys with two legs and one arm missing sit gazing into space, oblivious to the well-dressed college students, education… or food. They are begging for alms, but no one is paying attention?
While we are still on Brigade Road, you could come across an occasional woman showing herself off explicitly to embarrassed middle-aged men, who will ogle their eyes on her, but refrain from paying for it. The woman could have been mentally deranged, or, worn down by the abuse bestowed upon her by the cruel world. Well, no one knows her real story because no one cares enough to know. We are too busy being embarrassed by it.
The "Carnivale" does not end here, as I cite from my own experience.
I was caught in traffic at Airport Road. A boy of about nine holding a small circular box came to our rickshaw, begging for alms. I didn't have any change to be honest, so I told him to move on. To which, he quickly opened the circular box and thrust a live snake five inches from my face. Here I was staring at a venomous creature, and there he was smiling. What followed next were a shocked scream and lots of individuals staring at our rickshaw. The boy moved on with his snake.
Beggars have now moved on from providing entertainment to inciting fear by bullying an individual for some change.
I do hope though that in the common interest of the citizens of Bangalore they would leave the animals to chill out at the Bannergatta National Park; because the next time I am stuck in a traffic jam, it would kill me if someone came up to me for alms with a crocodile.
Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal
There is an art involved in the pursuit of begging, as a profession. The beggar works his way into making you feel guilty for not parting with a few paises from your pocket. And before you know it you are lending those coins to them, because, it's good for Karma.
There was a time when performers at street corners would walk on ropes, blow fire through their mouth and even dance with bears and snakes. They were professionals in their own right and deserved the occasional alms they earned. The beggar would then pick up his performance equipments and move on singing and dancing to his own tune in front of another prospective donator.
The talent they possessed soon made way into a more emotional set-up. Maybe entertainment was not working; maybe the alms were not enough to take care of the basic needs. Professionalism gave way to desperation and we saw women holding children, children hold children, maimed individuals and naked infants clutching at their mothers' breasts, on the streets.
They would stare at you with desperate eyes, and hit on their stomachs, while you relished the occasional ice cream; making you feel miserable and you would slowly part with your change and sometimes… your ice cream.
Times have changed now, but no one seems to notice.
Brigade road and its surrounding areas sometimes seem like a scene from the mini-series "Carnivale". Hunchback, bare-chested men with their skins baking under the harsh sun lie inverted on a piece of cloth; boys with two legs and one arm missing sit gazing into space, oblivious to the well-dressed college students, education… or food. They are begging for alms, but no one is paying attention?
While we are still on Brigade Road, you could come across an occasional woman showing herself off explicitly to embarrassed middle-aged men, who will ogle their eyes on her, but refrain from paying for it. The woman could have been mentally deranged, or, worn down by the abuse bestowed upon her by the cruel world. Well, no one knows her real story because no one cares enough to know. We are too busy being embarrassed by it.
The "Carnivale" does not end here, as I cite from my own experience.
I was caught in traffic at Airport Road. A boy of about nine holding a small circular box came to our rickshaw, begging for alms. I didn't have any change to be honest, so I told him to move on. To which, he quickly opened the circular box and thrust a live snake five inches from my face. Here I was staring at a venomous creature, and there he was smiling. What followed next were a shocked scream and lots of individuals staring at our rickshaw. The boy moved on with his snake.
Beggars have now moved on from providing entertainment to inciting fear by bullying an individual for some change.
I do hope though that in the common interest of the citizens of Bangalore they would leave the animals to chill out at the Bannergatta National Park; because the next time I am stuck in a traffic jam, it would kill me if someone came up to me for alms with a crocodile.
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