Saturday, January 31, 2009

A beggarless Delhi

Its being quite a while since I heard "Allah ke naam pe de de baba" in Delhi, specially on road at traffic lights. The usual "Shani Dev" and like, do come from time to time but the condition on the road has really undergone a tremendous change.

Feels bad if you stand on Moolchand traffic light (for eg), and there is no one to entertain you. They do provide a good entertainment while the light changes to green. Although it is good that they (cant really say who, maybe the beggar association) have done something to scrub this. It is doing India good.

Slumdog millionaire has recently shed some light on the facts of how a beggar is made, although some of the beggars I have chatted with, say they became beggars to follow family traditions, makes sense if you follow Indian History, Sudama the acclaimed friend of Krishna was also a bikshuk (in a sense a door-to-door beggar).

What else can I say, from here I can see both sides of the debate forming. To finish this business is to destroy our tradition, on the other hand it does not look and feel good if you encounter a beggar, their faces are so innocent and their eyes compels you to give alms thinking they are poor and cant help it but in reality they do have a nice sum collected everyday and they basically fill pockets of mafia leaders and all, not all of them but still a fair amount. Its best if this thing gets eradicated from the society, everyone must work up the ladder of success and that would definitely make India a true super-power. And for doing this they must scrap that SC/ST rules, they get so many perks which a normal Indian have to deal with everyday. Like education, jobs etc. Although I believe that they must be given a chance and taken up for some jobs of standard.