Richie Rich through Begging!!!

Its been ages I have updated the blog and today, finally, I found the appropriate subject. Yeah, I know, its been a long time and I can't say that I wasn't free to update the blog but I can certainly say that I had not found appropriate topic for the blog. But today I decided to write what I saw when I had been out to temple. If you are a citizen of India, or even if you aren't, what do you see when you first enter the temple? The answer to this question is very very easy; we see Large number of Beggars sitting in front of a temple in a straight line. Its as if they have made a long queue and are waiting for their chance to come as to when God will shower them with lots of money, food, fruits, basically, whatever they can get. But do they actually get their chance? Does God shower them with blessings? Here is the irony, more than showing us his love, he shows them their love. Now most of the readers would think, why would she say such a thing? Aren't we suppose to show pity towards them? Help them in whatever way we can? These are some of the questions I will be answering today in this post.

This is the most common picture we see on our roads, bus/railway stations, temples, almost everywhere. And we immediately feel sorry for it. But is it worth feeling sorry for? According to me, absolutely no. And the reason is, at the end of the day, whatever they earn or beg does not go in their pocket. But rather it goes in the pocket of a thug or contractor who have hired them. They have their own associations and did you know, you can't be a beggar until and unless you register in one of the association. Then whatever a beggar earns throughout the day, almost 70% of it goes to that contractor of the association. Almost all of us must have seen Slumdog Millionaire and 80% would have said- nah, this is not the condition in India. Foreign people like to put us down and thats the reason they have showed this condition. But trust me when I say this, that is the real condition. Infants are stolen from govt hospitals everyday. They are given to girls or young women or kids on rental basis. Because when you see a baby, your heart melts and you end up giving more money. Some of the kids are even mutilated so that they will get Pity Money.

Now this is one side of the story. What are the actual statistics? India's capital, Delhi, alone is the home for 120,000 odd beggars. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of beggars followed by Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal and Rajasthan. These are the statistics of 2010, before the CW games. After reading all this, readers will be thinking, why would anyone want to become a beggar? It must be because they don't have any other choice. You are certainly wrong here my friend. Because they are doing it as it is easy money. They just have to sit there, ditch their self respect in a nearby bin and act as if they don't know anything in the world. Wham! They get the money. Who would not want that? Here comes my today's experience as a proof for this. I had gone to Shani temple and it was very crowded. The queue had come on the road. And beside temple queue there was other line of people sitting. Ya, you guessed it right. They were beggars. But I was shocked to see them. Because all were dressed in fine clothes. Bit dirty if I say so. Almost all of them were aged below 50 and some of the men were even drunk. They had bags n bags full of eating goods. And as it was auspicious day, people kept on giving them more and more. They were all healthy, some of them even fat to tell the truth. Then why were they begging there? Because it was easy to beg than earn their food. I have few pictures which i took today. Hope it gives my friends a clear picture.

The lady you see on cycle here is pretending to be handicap and those packets of biscuits they have gathered just in the evening. Even though that lady in pink can see the goods displayed she is giving more items to them. Whose fault is it then? Sadly, I find the fault is with us. If we do not encourage them, they will end up working and for those who are truly in need, they have shelter homes and we are there to help them. Begging sadly has turned into a business now which has to come to an end but sadly its Vicious Circle of Poverty which will take all the efforts possible.

I must bring an end here as time for me to hit the bed has come. Though I haven't covered all the aspects of poverty and beggary, I hope readers have got my message.

Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm. ~Sidney J. Phillips

Presence of God

Does God exist? If he does then where is He? These are the questions which are faced by humans since eternity. And these are the questions I will try discussing in my blog today. But first of all the most important question is what is God? Is it an entity or is it just some source of energy? Is it some alien controlling whole universe or is it the power within us? The circle of questions goes on but we are not at all near to finding an answer to even one of these questions than we were thousands of years back. The only thing which has changed is we do not relate natural calamities to “Wrath of Gods” like before.

So what does God actually mean in my eyes? For me, it’s rather a simple concept. I believe in Hindu mythology that there is someone out there who is looking out for us. She/he is taking care of us and controls all the things that happen in our lives. But I have no idea who that “Someone” is. At the same time I have had many experiences regarding one particular god which is Ganesha- The elephant god. Whenever I have prayed to him, my wishes have come true and my many fears, for example fear of darkness is almost gone since the time I have started praying. This might be coz of faith. I chose to have faith in Ganesha and it in turn rewards me with peace and happiness. Faith can do wonders as we can see from the examples around us. Faith can be again in any form. It can be faith on oneself or faith towards others. Faith cannot be defined but rather experienced. This is how I see God but what about others? How do they see it?

For many people God is right beside us and helps us in any way he can. This I want to tell through a para from the book “City of Joy”. …… “A blind man about 30 was squatting in front of a kid who was a victim of polio. He was speaking to the boy as he gently massaged first the youngster’s needle-thin calves, then his deformed knees and thighs. The boy held on to the man’s neck with a look overcome with gratitude. His blind companion was laughing. He was still so young, yet he exuded a serenity and goodness that was almost supernatural. After a few minutes he stood up and took the boy delicately by the shoulders to get him on his feet. The latter made an effort to support himself on his legs. The blind man spoke a few words and the lad put one leg in front of him into the murky water that swamped the street. Again the blind man pushed him gently forward and the child moved his other leg. He had taken a step. Reassured, he took second. After a few minutes they both were making their way down the middle of the alley, the little boy acting as guide for his brother in darkness and the latter propelling the young polio victim forward. So remarkable was the sight of those two castaways that even the children playing marbles on the kerbstones stood up to watch as they passed.” This according to me is the perfect example of finding God in day to day life. You can take lesson from this as well as feel happy that they found each other. This incident shows clearly that God is Humanity, which is very hard to find in today’s world. No one bothers about anyone and everyone is busy in their own lives but on the other hand there are people who would leave everything aside just to help others. They are called Messengers of God.

But at the same time we cant deny that there are people who are called Worshippers of Satan. For what reason? Why someone would call some person such a horrific term? May be because of the deeds they do. May be because they don’t believe in Humanity. One such example I can think right now is of Holocaust. What did Hitler and his followers gained by killing millions of innocents? Was he so blind that he forgot what is it to be a human? These are some questions I do not think any one can answer. But does this mean God does not exist? No, according to me, it simply means God is testing us. He is testing how strong we are, if we learn from our mistakes. First World War was not enough for man that he had to fight Second World War. To make mankind understand graveness of the war, God had to take drastic measures. And I think Humanity has learnt from it. May be not on the smaller scale but definitely on the bigger scale. Those who do not believe in God will never understand what I am trying to say. They will come up with all kind of valid counter arguments to this post. And I am sure I will not be able to answer them. After all, I haven’t seen God. But I sure have felt him within me. And anyone who has faith has felt him. Faith is an answer to many of the questions.

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. ~C.S. Lewis