What's their fault?

Catching up with my fiancee, her brother and her cousin at Woodside Inn in Colaba. We had some drinks, some snacks. We discussed about the shopping we had done (yours truly is tying the knot in Nov, thus) and joked about the dance preparation (or lack of it) for the Sangeet night. All this and some more and we decided to head to Falafal for dinner which is next door to Woodside Inn. On the way (5 steps between Woodside Inn and Falafal) I saw an old lady with a little boy (probably her grandson) having their food out of a crumpled silver foil. They were having rice with some watery gravy and the little boy had the most wonderful smile on his face. Maybe, he was happy to be having dinner with his grandmother, maybe he was happy to be having a full meal after a long time or, maybe just happy. I questioned (like many times before) the existence of a God (or whatever it is that decides which family and in what conditions will a child be born to) and if there really is one then why does he/she do it. What’s the child’s fault? The same child could have been born to some rich industrialist or even to a normal middle class family where his needs would be provided for, where he would be given the opportunity to become what he wanted to or where he would get at least an education.

Every time I see poor kids sitting on roadsides, or traffic signals or anywhere I feel ashamed for not being able to do anything for them. Giving a beggar some money is not going to solve any problem but that’s all I can do at that moment. Maybe even that's useless because that money might make its way to the ring leader or equals of those beggars. Irrespective, I have always wanted to donate to CRY, SavetheChildren or any such NGO working towards providing the basics of life to the underprivileged children.

The other day outside the regional Passport office while waiting for my agent (he was running late..damn these agents) and having a Veg Grill sandwich I saw a little boy and a girl (probably siblings) begging at the signal. After the lights turned green they came near the stall and sat down. The little girl looked up towards me and a sense of guilt struck me. There I was eating (just to kill time actually) away ignorant of the problems so many of those children face every minute of every day. I just asked the two kids if they would like to eat something..the little boy jumped up, turned around and looked at the shop and shyly said "Lassi". I got them a Lassi each and it was a such a satisfactory feeling I just can’t explain. I walked back towards the office looking back in between to see the kids sitting on the footpath drinking the Lassi and smiling at me. I can proudly say that I remember the happiness I felt that day much more than the loathing I felt towards the officer who rejected my Tatkal application. Damn these sarkari babus- they don’t even know their own rules or maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him cos he just wanted some bribe.

How we live our daily lives- eat out of international food chains, buy branded clothes ignoring the problems millions of children face day in and day out is so appalling. For all our indifference, we could have been in their place. After all, we didn’t do anything to be born to the families we were to. There is no qualification for that..it’s just destiny. There’s nothing we do for them while at the same time cribbing about the petty things in life. I think all (well, most) of us should hang our heads in shame. I know i will.