Food For Thought

Dear Friends,

This piece of writing has been contributed by a dear friend from Bangalore. I was chatting with her this morning when she asked me to read one of her articles and give my opinion. After I read it, I was so touched that I requested her to allow me to post this on my ILand. Very graciously, she agreed and here it is for everyone to read and comment.

Take Care,

NT

Food for Thought

How much do you earn?  How much do you spend on a movie followed by dinner with your family? How much do you spend for a romantic candle light dinner? …. And how much do you pay your maid/ helper at home? How much do you drop in to the soiled hands or bowl of a beggar down the road? Take a few minutes off and answer these simple, straightforward questions honestly.

Ever so often we blow up money on a dinner, movie, party or spending the evening with friends and family. We don't think twice while ordering the delicious sizzlers, Chinese and Thai delicacy, the piping hot Punjabi food or a double scoop sundae.  However when it comes to dropping a few coins into the hands of a begging kid at a traffic signal, a old lady at the temple gate, the handicapped man at the street corner we think twice. Most of us ignore them, roll up the car windows or pretend to look in the opposite direction. Some of us dig into our wallets/purses looking for small change with which we part reluctantly.

Two incidents which happened more than 6 years back are still fresh in my mind, though I am not sure which happened first.  One day my close friend and I had taken a 30 minute break from work to have some hot vegetable puffs at an Iyangar bakery at a stones throw away from the office. Many people stand there munching goodies after 4 in the evening (that is the time the puffs, stuffed buns etc come freshly baked out of the oven). While we were hogging hot vegetable puffs and masala biscuits, we notice a young lad of about ten years picking crumbs that fell on the ground and eating it. As if that was not a sorry picture, we also a street dog licking crumbs a few steps away. We immediately bought another puff and gave it to the young boy. The two of us will never forget the look of gratitude in his eyes as he

hungrily ate his simple treat. He did not thank us verbally- there was no need for "Thanks", his eyes expressed 100 words of gratitude.

The second incident too was extremely touching. A big group of friends (almost 15 of us) had just finished a grand lunch at a posh Chinese restaurant. As it often happens when big groups order food, we realized that we had over-ordered and were not able to finish the noodles, some fried rice and some ginger chicken. The waiter packed the remaining food for us and we headed out. We had hardly taken 5 steps out of the restaurant when two little kids (a boy and girl in mud soiled, patched clothes) came begging for money. The guy who was carrying the bag of food, handed the packet over to the girl who looked a bit surprised but readily accepted it. Can you take a guess what the two of them did… well they went across to the other side of the road and shared the contents with two more friends who sitting on the footpath. I was so touched by this simple act that I felt my eyes moisten with tears. We all watched as the four kids hungrily ate the contents.

I know it is not possible to eradicate poverty and hunger, but we can at least do something in our own little way. Now many of you will feel, why I should give that man money he will just use it to gamble or drink. Why should I give the kid money, his drunken father will beat him and snatch it away. Well they may be some undeserving cases who beg because it's an easy way out or because they are too lazy. Some of you will say that I am encouraging begging.

Well maybe you can do what one guy did. I saw this scene at a traffic signal while waiting in an auto for the signal to turn green. A young girl in tattered clothes was trying to get a few coins before the traffic could move, and had stopped near a red Santro. A well dressed guy at the driver's seat rolled down the windows and gave her a packet of Tiger biscuits. I also noticed that he had a few more packets on his dashboard probably to hand out to begging kids instead of giving money. May be like many of us he too did not believe in giving cash. So friends I am not asking you to give money and encourage begging. I am just saying that a few coins, biscuits, bread etc will satisfy someone's hunger, and perhaps it may the only food they will have for the day.