A little hand and a Hoola-Hoop

Scene - Mayo Hall Junction, MG Road

Time - around 9:00 a.m. every weekday

I'm sitting snug in the driver's seat of my swift waiting for the light to go green. Its a long traffic signal; so, doing my bit to reduce global warming, I switch off the engine.

A little girl comes and stands in the space between a couple of cars. She brings out a small hoola hoop (that ring through which they can wriggle through and do some tricks, if I am mistasken with the name). An even younger boy, of maybe six-seven years, holds in his hand a rough contraption that could double as a drum for lack of anything better. And he starts beating it. No rhythm to speak of, but just some background music to help provide an ambience to the girl's performance.

The girl begins her performance. A few cartwheels and somersaults. Then she wriggles through the hoop by twisting her body through it (the hoop is extremely small you see). A short forty second performance. The traffic light is red for about 120 seconds. She has to complete her routine in that time. After that, both the kids walk around to each car and tap the glasses of the cars asking the driver or the co passenger for some small alms.

The girl makes a very sorry face. Sometimes, I give in and hand over a few coins. ( Generally, we dont think twice to pay 200 bucks for a multiplex ticket nowadays. But, now suddenly the few coins seems like an amount to reckon with. ) Now, this kid is pretty intelligent. If I hand over a few coins one day, the next few days she wont even ask you. She actually remembers your face.

Now am I stingy, I reflect? A wave of guilt washes over me. At her age, I was a happy kid with no cares in the world and spent worry free days in a great school and cosy evenings at home. At the same age, these kids actually had to work to fend for themselves. To get a square meal. No parents to provide for them probably.

Their courage was admirable. They had no other choice. Or did they? Had they been offered a seat in some government school which they ran away from? Maybe she felt the skills (of education) were of no use to her in her life. At the end of the day, she still needed a meal to survive the night and see the light of day tomorrow. Or then again, maybe she did not even know the concept of a school. I would never know. I only knew that by giving in to her pleadings and giving her money, I was encouraging her to continue this. Maybe now it was ok. But what ten twenty years from now? Continue with this forever. But the next ten years is probably far from her mind. She would probably think as far ahead as dinner for the night. Period. Then again, if I didn't give her the money, someone else would. She wouldn't be convinced into dropping this just because I refused. This was pointless.

I continue the same routine to this day. Sometimes I oblige, on others I just ignore her. Simply because I cannot decide which is the best course of action. I remember the time when there used to be a kid hanging in front of the National College, Jayanagar Coffee Day. This kid would try to extract money from the clientele of the cafe by making up a melancholy face and an excuse of not having eaten for the last twenty four hours. At first, I felt sorry for him. But then, i noticed on the second or third time that the kid was actually acting. He could change between his real mood (which was quite happy and satisfied) to a tear-stricken face in the blink of an eye. He knew from experience that the sorry face would get more takers. This chap was also equally street smart. He would always zero in on the female clientele about to enter Coffee Day. He knew that girls had a softer heart and were more likely to reward him earlier. He would even shed a year or two while he beseeched that he hadn't had a decent meal all day and tug on the girl's shirt or jeans until she relented from sympathy or just to get rid of the clinging boy. Once my friend Satya tried to be I don't know which, a saint or a wise ass. He asked the kid why he was not going to school and offered to personally enroll him somewhere. The kid retorted -

' If you get me something to eat from that bakery, do it and I'll be thankful. But i don't need your advise' - in kannada.

Satya relented and bought him a bun to eat. So the point is, maybe the kid was too comfortable in his role now. It definitely beat sitting in a school and learning something which he would probably see as useless. But I guess, at that age, if I had been given a choice, I might have decided against studying too.

Finally, the point of this article - well I guess I dont know what is the point. I was just trying to fit into the shoes of those kids. They may not be sad and depressed. For them, seeing a meal at the end of the day might bring the same amount of joy as buying a spanking mobile phone for me. But that's beside the point. They deserve more than that. I thank my stars for having had a good life till now and it makes me believe in the concept of Karma to some extent. But for now, I promise myself that when I have more money, I will definitely do something to make the lives of such kids better, so that they can have a brighter future. Wishful thinking, but I have hope and faith in myself to do something good for others.