The Bargaining Beggar!
Oh..these are hard times. We always melt by the writings in the newspapers and visuals in the tv sets.
A lady coming to our house for alms used to get two rupees earlier. The conditions changing, it was raised to five. Then the simple lady said: Please give ten rupees which did not go very well with me, even though I did not say anything to her. At times I paid her ten also. Once she got ten rupees, she always expected ten rupees. Once she said she is going to her native place and wanted a little more.I thought it reasonable and gave her a slightly bigger sum. She went happily.
Now I shifted my station to a bigger city in South India. Here I used to travel with my family. Once day, a lady seemingly poor but healthy stood on the side of the road and signed for stopping our car. I brush off such stuff, as I do not accept the way side bullying for alms or for that matter for begging at red lights during heavy traffic. Since I was not in the driving seat, I had no role and my friend stopped the car and slid down the wind shield. The lady looked in and asked for alms. My friend pulled out his purse and took out a hundred rupee note and gave her. I thought it was a huge sum for alms as it goes and expected the lady to thank or bless him. Nay..., she said..."Enna Saamy, hundred fifty kodungaiaah" (Hundred?, Give hundred and fifty!). I was dismayed at the audacity of the woman. My friend drove off.
PS: Later, that day, I advised him that he should not have stopped the car in the first instance)
