Thanks to a little confused state of mind and not so good time in business in the last few months, i never got the patience to write about many interesting thoughts that came to me. Now i am not able to recollect those thoughts to write about it. So one of the "Independence day" resolutions is to write as often as possible.
Nevertheless, this post is about a strange situation i got into a couple of days back. This happened in the junction of Bannerghatta road and ring road. This is also known as Jeedi mara sighnal or J.P.Nagar third phase.
Mostly by culture and a little by default, i generally have opinions on many things and controversies. One of it is begging at the traffic signals. I am vehemently against begging and i get little worked up when i see small kids and middle aged women begging on the streets. I have got into serious arguments with friends who encourage begging by giving money to the beggars. Its alright to help handicapped or old person struggling to make a living in this world, but i just cannot reconcile to the fact that middle aged women and children take to begging..
On the other hand, i have respects and sympathy for children who sell flowers or toys at traffic signals to make a living. I have been following one such kid by name Mahesh (or manjunath, not sure) who regularly sells flowers at the third block Jayanagar signal. He studies at MES school in Ninth standard and to support himself, he sells flowers in the evening for about 2 to 3 hours. He always gives change after the purchase (unlike the auto drivers of Bangalore).
It was the auspicious day of Varamahalakshmi festival on 12 august 2011. Since Independence day was round the corner, it was common to see small kids selling small flags and other patriotic emblems on the streets. I met one such kid in the jeedi mara signal. I was on my car waiting at the signal. A small girl about 7 or 8 years old came walking to my car with a few flags in her hand. She was looking little strange. Her face was slightly deformed and she looked badly malnourished. The window glass was up. She tapped the glass. I ignored her since i was not interested in buying the India flag. She dint give up and kept tapping with her face on on the window. So i was forced to open the window. She literally cajoled me to buy a a flag. She said "ಬರಿ ಹತ್ತು ರುಪಾಯೀ" (Only 10 rupees). I replied saying that i am not interested in the flag but would give her 10 rupees. I gave her a 10 rupee note. She took the 10 rupee note and dropped the flag on my lap.She refused to take it back. She would not just take that 10 rupees as a charity.
Behind her came a small boy, equally malnourished, may be a year or two older than this girl. But the difference was that he was begging. He went car to car tapping windows and begging. Some people did give him some change but i refused.
While i appreciate the little girl's patience and spirit, it only shows the bad state of affairs in our country. In Bangalore, we have hundreds of children like this who sell cheap Chinese toys on the streets or beg on the streets. Abolition of child labour , right to education etc are looking good only on paper but not in spirit. It seems we have more laws and less justice.
It is the 65th year of our independence and we are yet to give basic minimum education and nutrition to masses in our country. Tomorrow a few hundred children chosen from a few elite schools of south Delhi will repeat a few sentences of inspiration, motivation and greatness of the country after our prime minister at the "INDEPENDENCE DAY" function. But there are many many children in our country who still do not know what is the occasion on 15 August.
Before i sign off "Happy independence day to all independent people" ..
