The Other Side of Mirror

After finishing the shopping spree for our induction program in Mumbai and gulping coke with Mc’D’s burger, we started strolling towards home. I had completely descended myself deep into the music player of my phone and could hear to nobody/ nothing but Bon Jovi.
While passing across a mansion on our way, I asked Raghu “Is it private property?”
Raghu “There is a woman out there begging on the road.”
“Such a magnificent palace!!
“There is an infant with her.”
“If only I were living in this mansion!!!”
“She is begging for food.”
“Look at the offer, “Exchange old bike with new one on easy loan.”
While I kept ambling, Raghu suddenly rushed into a restaurant.
“What a gourmand!!! Aren’t those burgers enough to satiate this pig’s stomach?”
All I could do was to stare at the unblemished, enticing bike and reverie about it. After five minutes Raghu came out of the restaurant with a plastic bag full of spank-smelling food and started walking back to mansion negating my frown. Rest of the scene I could only imagine. Raghu walked down to that vagabond and offered the food.
(My heart could sense he offered food not to that destitute but in the grand majesty of that almighty and the best part is that this stroke of altruism was as unconditional and chaste as mother’s love for her toddler)
“Please don’t think that I have brought all left and stale for you. Food is fresh-packed.” Raghu, the harbinger of humanity for the moment, said with persuasive and compassionate smile.
“As you can see, baby can’t eat. It drinks only milk.” said the aged and frail tramp forwarding the milk bottle towards Raghu.
I was so exclaimed by her ingratitude. Scene had drifted even from my wildest imagination. I was expecting that the lady would express her sheer gratefulness to Raghu who was no less than the incarnation of God to her, at least for the evening.
Raghu inquired if there was any shop nearby where he could get milk for starving baby.
Lady immediately responded with authority “There is a big, big, very big provision store down the road. You get milk there.”
“Ok.”
Before I could come down to my senses, Raghu had rushed to get milk (mind it milk which is packed in bottles) from any possible corner of the terrestrial enclave. I stood there frozen on the corner of the road looking no less than a clown.
2 Minutes- Raghu is not back.
Apart from cars and bikes, there is nothing much to observe in this dusk. What to do? Let’s observe the beggar. She is around fifty. Pale skin, draped in rags, sitting on a mat which is matt. There are few coins lying on the mat thrown by kind people as alms. Poverty is like dripping her from all angles. Her only vision for future seems to make sure her family doesn’t sleep hungry. Her immediate target is to get milk for infant as the rest of the target is already bestowed by Raghu. Infant is half naked, nothing more than a skeleton, epitome of famine and making me believe that hunger and its quench can transcend from being a need to being eerily only desire to live.
5 Minutes- Raghu is not back yet.
I am dead tired, so I sit on the wall which makes the footpath like an aisle between road and palace. I make sure that I have maintained a considerable distance from beggar. Passer-bys are staring at me with all bizarreness and curiosity as to what possibility could have made it inevitable for the young man in formals to sit next to beggar on the footpath. One lady has tossed a coin at her.
“Where has the chap gone?” lady asked me.
“To get milk (mind it milk which is packed in bottles) for baby.”
“He is making it too late. He has vanished in the wrong side. Provision store is this side. I know a big, big, very big store. Why don’t you get milk?”
I almost fell down from the wall. There is Raghu, hell bent to get milk even from nadir of earth and here is this lady who doesn’t even have the patience to wait for him.
“That is hotel and not store. You got food but not milk there.”
“Don’t teach me. I know how many twenty make a hundred. You are making excuses to avoid spending money on milk.” Lady rebuked me adamantly.
“You must be out of your mind. Here we are arranging to feed you, your baby and all your family and you are arraigning me only.”
“I am already late.” she said indifferently signing thanks to a passer-by who had thrown a coin to her.
“What obstinate beggar” I thought.
Meanwhile, bystanders and passer-bys are making warped faces looking at me and beggar conversing with each other. Baby has no other task at hand but to cry.
10 Minutes- Raghu still hasn’t appeared.
“I guess the guy has left. Listen to me, don’t be lazy. Go, Get the milk.”
I didn’t respond as i knew Raghu would be back any moment.
“O kind man, may god give you all the happiness of this world. Go; Get the milk for the baby.”
“What’s his name?”
“Don’t waste your time. Get the milk. The other gentleman seems to be stuck somewhere.”
I turned back and saw Raghu coming with a bottle. He gave milk to the lady and lady paid a word of thanks without any genuine appreciation. We started walking back to our room.
Raghu was explaining me the difficulty he had in getting the milk (mind it milk which is packed in bottles). But I was not getting anything he was saying. I was still thinking about the beggar. What could have made her behave so impolitely? Why was she angry with me or was she angry with me only, if at all? Why was she being so selfish?
At the age of fifty, she was there on the road begging for the food with the infant which most probably was her grandson. If there is grandson, there must be a son. Where is he? Two possibilities are there.

1. Son is no more.

So, what’s wrong if poor mother of a dead son is annoyed with this society which can’t provide food and shelter to her? What great thing passer-bys are doing by giving her alms as she had to sit there for the same thing tomorrow also! Why should she be grateful to them? What’s wrong if she is selfish and in hurry to get the milk for baby, anyhow? Aren’t we all selfish? Isn’t this whole world selfish?

2. Son is there but not earning enough to feed her and baby.

Isn’t a son who is making his mother beg on road reason enough for the lady to be impolite to this world? I don’t see anything abnormal in that. So, if she is imagining her son in me, righteously she will fell making me teach how many twenty make a hundred. What gratefulness and appreciation can the youth expect from old generation for helping them with things which they should get by right?

Now keenly observe this. Baby drinks only milk and lady is carrying a bottle. That means baby is denied of breast-feeding. Reason????? Mother is no more in this world or unable to feed baby. Grandma is begging, bottle is empty and baby is hungry, I don’t know for how long. Had I been there in place of such a grandmother, shouldn’t I have all the restlessness in this world to feed the infant as soon as possible? Why should I wait until some Raghu turns up? Why shouldn’t I insist some Anshul who is standing next to me when I know he has got money enough to buy a packet of milk and the only reason he is standing here to see that Raghu gets milk for baby.
I don’t want to argue about the pros and cons of giving alms to beggars. I am not here to decide the criteria to separate deserving beggars from undeserving beggars. All I want to say is let’s acknowledge that there is a world out there which needs our unconditional help. Unconditional help. Let’s be thankful to God for giving us gifts like healthy body, parents, good childhood and other things which we take for granted. But ask those who are denied of it. Walking is so obvious for us. Ask a lame is it obvious for him? His only dream in life might be to walk a few steps on his own feet without any help.
So, in future whenever and wherever we meet somebody who needs help, let’s not just shy away with an excuses like lack of time, liquidity crunch or simply stating that candidate for help is not deserving. Let’s be unconditional. Let’s do best what we can do on our echelon, magnitude really doesn’t matter. If nothing, we can at least pay attention to them which costs us nothing. Let’s make this life better not only for us but also for others.