Odd Man Out
During the last weekend, I had been to Dilshad Garden, Delhi to attend the Delhi Pooram festival, a replica of Thrissur pooram festival. A colorful procession with “Karagattam” a sort of folk dance of Tamilnadu in which group of people dance in a round manner with flower pots on their head, dancing to the tune of “kottu melam” a sort of group percussion and balancing the pot on head simultaneously followed by “Thalapoli” an arrangement in which ladies wearing uniform traditional dress of kerala tread parallely with mud lamps and some other items like rice, flowers etc. on the plates adding elegance to the atmosphere and Panchavadyam a sort of percussion with rhythms which is the king of kings of all the rhythms one can ever witness and caprisoned elephants. Nearly a thousand and odd of people had participated in the festival.The procession was really wonderful and culminated at a nearby school ground where a cultural event of “Kuda matram”, changing of colorful golden and silver umbrellas on the top of elephants accompanied by rhythmic panchavadhyam, a thrilling experience anybody would enjoy to the hilt irrespective of the language to which one belongs or the place from where one hails.
Kuda matram event was going on at it’s peak. Somehow, I started feeling bit thirst and hungry and was looking at the make shift shop arranged for the purpose. Many people were having tea and snacks there.
I also had tea and half a plate noodles which itself was bit costly as they were charging exorbitantly taking advantage of the opportunity to the hilt. Quantity of noodle was less than half a plate even though they charged for half the plate.
A girl was seen roaming around here and there desperately begging for money and food. Her eyes wore a sympathetic look. It seemed as if she was starving for days. None of the people gathered there bothered to help her. Everybody was turning her down ruthlessly. Nowadays, nobody believes anybody. People apprehend that such kind of beggars could be even thieves. They always look suspiciously on fellow mortals. She was begging to me also while I was having noodles. Somehow, I felt sympathy for that girl. I bought yet another half plate of needle. This time I got more than the half plate which I handed over to that girl who was a stranger to me. A girl of around age 12 cannot even know what life is. Perhaps, utter poverty might have driven her for begging. I did not bother to delve into the details.
Recently, a boy was killed for stealing food in kerala. His intention was not to steal. He stole just to quench his terrible thirst and hunger which people could not understand.
Sometimes we need to go out of the way to help a lame dog over the stale.
There is nothing wrong in giving alms to genuine beggars. People in general believe that begging should not be encouraged. Even if it seems to be right, when we delve into the reality of the situation, sometimes we need to go out of the way to help the fellow mortals in need. It is our social responsibility to help the genuinely poor people. Not that, all are blessed to born with a silver spoon or that all the five fingers are equal. All are not created equal. Background from which each of us hails differs. I firmly believe that an act of kindness will not go unrewarded. If we help somebody in need, God will send somebody else to rescue us when we are in need. God will be happier if we help the fellow mortals rather than chanting Mantras and going to temples, a real devotion.
My intention is not to boast about myself. I have not done a great thing. I have only done that any man of ordinary prudence would have ever done in similar circumstances to save the odd kind of situation.
Only poor people can understand, what poverty is. Our tiny acts of kindness will go a long way to boost the morale of needy.
If we pay attention, we can witness millions of such cases. But, today we do not have time. We keep ourselves busy on mobile. The whole world is at the tip of the finger, in a tiny device, mobile.
The End
Author : C.P.Hariharan
e mail Id : cphari_04@yahoo.co.in
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