Today when I went to pick up my younger brother from school, while waiting for him to come, outside the gate I saw this beggar walking up to a lady and ask her alms. From what I gathered I presume she said no, and this evoked no emotion in me as he seemed quite healthy man, not the thin and starving sort you get to see, frankly, he should have been working.
And then, he pointed to his right foot and I saw that the upper layers of skin were torn and falling off and that he was bleeding quite badly. It seems like he’d just been in an accident and a car had run over his foot. As he had no footwear to protect his feet, and so his skin had been rent.
It was terrible. She made a face reflecting surprise, pity and disgust and refused him any money anyway. Within the next ten seconds the school guard had reached there and began shooing him off. He limped away begging for help.
No one bothered to give him a single paise.
I was busy guarding a heavy bag of belongings but managed to send whatever change I had with the guard.
I’m sure that lady and the teacher next to her, not to mention the countless passers – by were very well to do and did some charity through the year and prided themselves for the charity which they did – giving plenty to charitable organizations. But none could part with ten rupees to help a beggar buy a bottle of antiseptic lotion, cotton and a bandage.
It just disgusts me that people have become so callous. If he wore good clothes and came near the school asking for help, the school itself would have given him a first – aid box. Just because he was in rags doesn’t make him any less of a person. He still has the same needs as us, and feels the same pain.
I wonder when people will realize that charity isn’t that certificate of thanks they receive from a charity organization but how much they help a person in need.
2 comments:
But, princess, charity ought to be something that people should want to do. Remember, it wasn't the fat lady's duty to help the guy. If she didn't want to help him, what's wrong with that?
The point is psycho, that she looked all pitying and suprised then just had him shooed away. He was someone who really needed help, and she could provide it. It was her duty to help him at least nominally. No one was asking her to take him to the hospital, but help him as much or little she could in her situation. What's wrong with what she did was that being capable to help, she completely ignored him, and people like her still consider themselves to be charitable. It's just so warped.
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