Those were covid days when we moved to Hyderabad. Almost all offices were following work from home discipline. Few people were enjoying working remote from their home towns and some other places.
Alike others me and my wife were working from home only. But we used to drive often to nearby places to shop and eat out sometime. Those were the days when roads looked pretty empty and spacious. There was no traffic jam and we felt like Hyderabad might be the city free from traffic jams and road congestions.
Slowly, few months’ later hybrid work culture started and people were back to their normal office going routine. Though, it was not that a whole population of the city was travelling to office. Nevertheless roads of Hyderabad started showing its true colors. Whenever I used to drive to office or anywhere else for some errand, the situation was getting worse day by day.
Travel time has almost doubled for the same distance journey. It was getting pathetic. In middle of this traffic situation there were long waiting at all traffic signals on the way to office.
One of those traffic signals had waiting time of five minutes. It was right in middle of the IT city where mostly IT companies are situated. Besides delays due to those long traffic signals that spot had become a temporary shelter for few homeless and beggars. And these kinds of traffic signals are boon for those people living on other’s favor. Few of them used to sell balloons; pens and other were who used to beg by virtue of some kind of physical disability of them. And those were not only adults but there were kinds also begging along with them.
One of them stopped near to my car and started begging. He signaled he was deaf and dumb. Generally I ignore such people if he looks quite capable of earning if he could instead of begging. But looking at those physically challenged people I used to become little compassionate and charitable sometimes. But that was rare too. Therefore for that particular moment and looking at the beggar's misery I pulled my walled out of the dashboard and handed a fifty rupee note to him. This all happened in a flow of emotions in few seconds. That beggar moved ahead and I pressed my accelerator to cross the signal.
Right there, on a second thought I felt what I did was not just right. Although I used to show such mercy on such people rarely but still that thought of giving a fifty rupees note? Jot just five or ten rupees, it was a handsome amount of rupee to buy me a onetime tea and snacks or a meal for myself. I regretted for the action I did few minutes back.
I recalled those days few years back when I had started working my first company where my first pay was like a kind of stipend only. Those fifty rupees was my wages for two hours a day. And there I just showered some mercy on that beggar and gave him a full fifty rupees note for free just flowing into an emotion for a while.
Those homeless might be beggars for year but why those people were still there? That is our mercy which is making them paralyzed. Few of those looked physically fit but still they chose to beg instead of working hard and earning their daily bread. That was what made me restless. What I had done was just another addiction to make somebody paralyzed of not choosing to work.
For those who can earn ‘”To ignore them is to bliss them”. And for those who cannot ear and beg to full their stomach is another open question for the society.
After that day I ignored those beggars and there was some another day when I saw something different happened over same traffic signal.
There was one elder person looked aged above sixty, well dressed in his white creased shirt and black trouser. He wore a metallic strap watch similar to our grandfather used to wear. He was carrying something in his plastic cover bag in his hands. He was wearing black shoes. All in all he reflected the image of a middle class old man.
I was sitting in my car with car engine switched off and car radio was tuned in playing some kind of Telegu music.
I was that so looked educated old man asking for money from a motorcyclist in front of me. I could hear a bit of the conversation happening there. The motorcyclist denied to help him and there what he did was shocking. That frustrated old man started pulling his tucked shirt upwards till his chest and started showing some kind of medical bandages on his stomach and shouting like ‘Medical emergency, medical emergency;. Who knows it was for real or some excused to get some free money?
It could be genuine that he might have some medical situation and might need some financial assistance for his treatment but the question is how far it is justified to ask in middle of such traffic signals standing with other beggars? Was that the right approach that old man was following to get some quick cash?
I was just observing that situation and in another minute that old man started moving towards me expecting some cash from me this time.
Not to ignore such educated middle class old man, I pulled the window glass down and he started begging again ‘medical emergency, help … help” something like this.
Not to let him go empty hand I pulled my walled and handed same fifty rupees to the old man. He looked at me like what was that fifty rupees for? He felt insulting for himself for such small amount what I tried to give him. He repeated ‘medical emergency, help” with more frustration and anger this time.
While I abstained myself to pay him more his actions turned misbehaving. Later what he did was left me clueless what to do then? I shut my window glass again.
