BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS ..IN A LIGHTER VEIN

                                         

                                        

                                   BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS !

                                               Reading  J S Raghavan’s middle on the Nocturnal Collectors of Leftovers , in the New Indian Express recently,took me back to my younger days ,when begging was  sort of banned in Kerala  those days, but we did have some “regulars “ in our locality who   came calling mostly on Sundays. This article  is not written to belittle beggars as we all know that no one normally takes to begging unless it is the last resort and perhaps out of sheer  helplessness.And I am talking about the " old generation" of beggars ,not the present one where organized begging rackets are in existence.

                       My  first memory is of an old  grouchy  man who would come    and make a racket at the gate with his walking stick. The expression on his face was always bitter ..may be life had given him nothing to smile about .The only time  I remember having seen a gleam in his eye and a half smile on his lips was when  the 50 paise coin was first upgraded to a rupee ! Then there was another old man , totally opposite in looks and demeanour , always with a smiling face, standing silently at the gate ,hardly knocking. Perhaps  he would have been standing there for minutes before someone in the house would spot him .He wanted only food and would  extend his little white enamel bowl for it. Not a day was he seen without  that friendly smile on his face. We often used to wonder among ourselves, why he had taken to begging and why his family could not take care of such a pleasant person,or may be he did not have a family at all. Today I wonder why none of us ever thought of asking him about his background..  All we were interested in was sending him away after providing  him with a little food .

                                In distinct contrast  was a very loud woman beggar, may be in her late sixties. She would be at the gate very often when the family was sitting for lunch. She would  raise her voice and keep calling so it would lead to an argument among us  as to who will get up from the dining table to give her food. Invariably it was my mother who did it. The woman wanted alms as well as food. Not just food ,she insisted on being given drinking water too .And at the end of it , a sweet was a must ! The days when there was no sweet , if we gave her a plantain she would start her rant !Once she asked  for a  saree and my mother ,a widow ,who uses only white sarees  gave her one. She promptly  returned it stating that she wanted a bright coloured one! She would not leave until she was given a brighter saree in place of the white one offered.

                          One day a new  beggar called at the gate .He was quite old and in tatters. After pocketing the coin he asked for a shirt. The only male adult  at home was my brother in law and he had just the other day given off his old shirts. However seeing the state in which the man was  in, he rummaged through his clothes and  gave not one but two shirts, one a cotton and another of a   Polyester material , both good ones. When his wife questioned him about giving two when only one was asked for, he gave a smug look which translated in words meant “ look here I am not like you, I am a very generous person with a kind heart “. Anyway the shirts were given and the old man walked off without any expression on his face. In the afternoon, the maid who was working for us came carrying the cotton shirt given  to the beggar .She found it thrown on the compound wall of our neighbour’s  house and since she knew it belonged to her “sir” she had brought it back. She was under the impression that  the shirt left to dry, after wash , must have been blown off by the wind !! It was difficult to convince  her that beggars can also be choosers !!!