14th August | Afternoon
| Approx 1:30
There are
only two places in India where every common person feels like being a
celebrity. One is railway and the other one is metro station’s exit gate.
It seems all
the autowalas of the city gathered
there to grab an opportunity to take you on a ride.
As we
stepped out of the Kanpur central Station Kanpur Central Station with my
brother and Bua, ten-fifteen auto
drivers surrounded us.
‘Sir, Come with me.’
‘Where do you have to go?’ Everyone was
screaming.
2-3 of them
tried to take luggage forcefully from us to keep in their auto.
‘Arey,listen!
We have to go near Lal Bangla.’ Bua
said.
‘ Rama Devi!’ I specified.
Even then,
4-5 started arguing that who would take us.
Supply
exceeded the demand there. Too many competitors in the market!
Immediately,
I asked decided to give opportunity to one of them before they start fighting.
‘Thik
hai bhaiya, aap le chalo!’ ( Okay ,
you take us!) I said to one of them, randomly.
He took both
luggages from my hand and we followed him.
‘Where are you people coming from?’ he asked
‘Agra!’ My bro and Bua replied together while I was busy in messaging my friends
informing about my arrival to the city after so long time.
‘Was it raining there??’ He asked again.
‘Yes, it rained yesterday.’ Bua replied.
‘Did it rain heavily?’ He asked again like a
news reporter. ‘Here, there is no sign of rain at all!’ He continued even
without our reply.
By the time
it was clear to us that we would get all the latest update of Kanpur in the
half-and hour of our auto ride.
‘See this over bridge. God knows when these
people would complete the construction.
Do you know,
in the name of over-bridge construction, they had de-constructed the roads
since last ten years?’
‘Ten years! Really?’ I murmured.
‘Yeah Di!’ My bro reminded me. ‘The work started
even before you left Kanpur, nine years before.’
‘There is so much of corruption in UP.
Government doesn’t works at all. They are busy in increasing their own bank
balance.’ Autowala explained.
‘So does everyone.
We all do the same.’ I said to myself, as I did not wanted any debate with the autowala.
After moving
few more kilometres, we found the railway crossing close. We had to wait for the train for another five to
ten minutes.
A ‘gentle’
looking man came toward us and greeted the autowala
and both got busy sharing the social, political and all sorts of information
for another 60 seconds. It was as they show 60 news in 60 seconds on some news
channel.
‘This train was running on time till
yesterday. Why is it so late today?’ One more update from our autowala.
After the ‘gentle’
man left, I heard our autowala speaking
to someone in very loud voice.
I turned to
right and then left, but couldn’t found the reason (person) on which he was shouting.
‘What the hell are you doing here in this
summer afternoon? Go to Ganga river
and take bath.’
‘Why should I go there?’ The other man asked.Then I followed the voice of the other person.
A handicapped
beggar was there next to our auto sitting on the roadside.
‘Go and wash away your sin in Ganga.’ Autowala said.
‘I don’t need. I am not a sinner.’ The beggar
replied.
‘You are the greatest sinner in this world.’
‘No, I
am not!’ Beggar denied.
‘You are! You are the sinner. You cheat
people and looting them.’ He was in no mood to spare the beggar.
Like kids, both
argued for another few minutes till the crossing reopened. And I was feeling
pity on the poor lame beggar who was living so hard life. Begging in the hot
noon, crawling on the burning concrete roads was so difficult.
I was
wondering, why the hell, this person (autowala)
is poking his nose in everyone’s affair? Why don’t he leave a beggar he just
saw on the road?
Even though
I never entertain the beggars and begging, I felt pity on his wretched condition.
Autowala restarted the auto and his
reporting as well.
‘You know mam, this man earns minimum 1000
rupees per day.’
‘One T H O U S A N D... p e r d a y? Atleast THIRTY Thousands per month?’ All
of sudden my all senses woke up, and so was the condition of my bro and Bua.
He was
earning more than the most of the educated fresher earning from their white-collar
jobs.
‘Yeah mam, and his brother drops him here
every morning and pick him up in the evening..on his bike.’ He narrated.
All the
feeling of sympathy, which developed inside, vanished all of a sudden. I was speechless!
I was
debating myself, should I criticize him or applaud?
Then a
thought came! When everyone is running to make his or her money, why can’t he
crawl for that?
When the
politicians and business tycoons are earning millions doing so many scams,
cheating the people, sitting in the air-conditioned room and travelling in
luxurious cars. Then even he has the human-right of making money from people
doing nothing productive. However, beggars
are working so hard.
Begging is definitely
one of the most difficult jobs, which demands so many skilled like the other
profession, except the education qualification.
They are not
any less professional at their work and devoted to their work adapting the
environment completely.
Really,
these beggars are such an effective sales person, with so good communication
skill that successfully make people to give them money even then when a person
knows about the begging business. They are so highly talented actor that once
you may say Salman Khan and Amitabh Bacchan that they are doing over-acting.
But you can’t ever recognise these streets talent that whether they are
suffering truly or mocking it.
And the
beggar thought of the be
gging situation of India ended with the auto which
stopped infront of our house.
But dude.. begging demands so much of talent...Seriously !
