Now, even beggars eat KFC

Gone are the days when beggars beg for food, they prefer to snatch it now. I am a witness to the same.

I was waiting for a friend outside KFC at Bandra-Linking Road yesterday, when a little beggar girl came and sat on one of the steps leading up to KFC with a bowl of half eaten ice-cream in her hand. As i watched her, she had a couple of spoons of the ice-cream until her mother who was sitting on the opposite side of the same footpath with another sleeping child in her lap beckoned the little girl to her and, then claimed her share of the remaining ice-cream. I thought this was pretty normal, as I assumed that the person who was eating the ice-cream deliberately gave away her half eaten bowl to the little girl when she must have begged for money. But maybe my assumption was entirely wrong...

Another two minutes passed and I was still standing there, that is when I saw it happen. The beggar girl who had returned to her previous place on the step after handing the ice-cream bowl to her mother was now again being told by her mother (in a language I could not understand but, could make out from the gestures) to go beg the couple who came out from KFC. What I was shocked to see was that, the little girl did not go to the couple and beg for alms, she rather went and snatched the glass of soft drink from the hands of the man. The man though surprised could do nothing. The girl then proceeded with the same ritual, she drank some of the drink and gave the rest to her waiting mother. As I watched in bewilderment, it happened again. This time the girl snatched a glass of cold coffee and some fries from an unsuspecting and rather helpless woman. 

The same process was repeated thrice in the 15 minutes that i stood there. The second the doors to the fast food joint would open, the mother would send her daughter to do the deed. The daughter of course would willingly oblige. I am guessing the duo along with the sleeping child spend the entire day right outside the joint, feasting on whatever food the diners make the mistake of bringing outside with them. Another thing that bothered me was that, there was no security guard outside to stop this from happening.

If this kind of behavior on the part of the beggars is not stopped, then I am afraid that its not long before they develop the guts to snatch money itself from our hands. Frightening thought!!!

>>>> The gutsy duo! Lets see if you can find them on your next visit.

The mother enjoying the the stolen drink.

The daughter's turn to have some.

Tiny Steps

I thought of taking my previous blog post on the traffic situation in the city a little more ahead, and what better way to do so than put it in the newspaper. So, I ended up writing a letter to the Editor of DNA newspaper. Luckily for me the editor seemed to like it, as a result it appeared in the 3rd July issue in their section know as 'Letters to the editor'.

Yes, its not a full fledge article and I should keep calm but, I am happy. Its my first TINY step, in the right direction, towards the successful future that i want for myself. Hoping to make it to the front page one day. Also, a little more awareness about the crossing situation will do no harm.

>>The article. ( Oh, they used my photograph too.)

 DNA (Daily News Analysis), 3rd July, Letters to the Editor.

Wheels on the Zebra.

As a child I was always afraid of crossing roads. I have learnt now however, huge wide roads still petrify me. The Mumbai traffic does not make my task any easier. More so, as I am forced to cross on the main road rather than the zebra crossing.

The purpose of the black and white stripes on the road known as ‘zebra crossing’ is to ensure a little patch for the pedestrians to cross safely from one side of the road to another. However, these zebra crossings are hardly ever seen today as they are covered by the vehicles that wrongly halt on the zebra crossing itself at a signal rather than the stipulated line before the crossing. At times they even go to halt their vehicles much ahead of the zebra crossing. This traffic behavior leaves no proper place for pedestrians to cross the road safely and the pedestrians are then forced to make their way through the traffic right in the middle of the road, which is rather dangerous.

This flouting of traffic rules is overlooked by all. Even the traffic police ignores it. The government run BEST buses don’t hesitate to flout the rule as well.

On one hand we are trying to fight corruption, while we ourselves break a law each and every day. There are people out there fighting for the rights of the poor and the down trodden. What about the rights of the man walking on the road? Who are we to blame the government for being corrupt and selfish, when we are nothing but the same? Just sitting conveniently in a vehicle gives us the right to forget about the convenience of others on the road? Are our actions justified? No, they aren’t. Until and unless we as citizens do not make tiny changes in our way of life we are in no position to blame the government for the distraught state of our nation. Change is needed for a better future.

“ If you want to make this world a better place, look at yourself and make that change. “ –Michael Jackson.

S.V.Road, Santacruz (W).

Marol Maroshi Road, Andheri (E)

A Remote Relationship

A couple of nights ago, I was sprawled on my sofa watching T.V post midnight. After a good 20 minutes of surfing through various channels and a failed attempt at watching and deciphering a non dubbed Malayalam movie I finally gave up and decided to go to bed.

As I sat in an upright position, my T.V remote which was perched on top of my torso fell to floor with a bang. Now, there was no big deal in the remote falling, it has fallen so many times in the past 10 years that I have long since lost count. However, that night when the remote fell I had an epiphany. I began to see my remote control in a whole new light.

My remote control is as old as my television set, that’s about 10 years. And, as I mentioned it has fallen and even been thrown in anger numerous times in the past 10 years. However, no amount of flinging and banging has caused any harm to it. None at all. That realization got me thinking how similar this remote is to the relationships that I maintain in my life or rather the relationships that most of us have in our lives. There are certain people in our life with whom we have had hideous fights and bitter misunderstandings yet, we managed to sail through the rough patch and emerged stronger than ever. Those people are forever by our side through thick and thin just as we are by theirs. And I can say this with much certainty that no matter how many times we may accidentally or carelessly ‘drop’ them, they will still be there for us as strong as ever.  Just like my T.V remote that has been with me for all these years. And, that got me thinking about the other remote in my life, my DVD remote control which is barely 3 years old but has broken so many times and doesn't function half of the time. The DVD remote gets me thinking about the people that are no more a part of my life; about the relationships that failed. They were those temporarily relationships that just need a reason to break, the slightest push was enough.

It is weird how such a random event can get you thinking of something with such profound meaning. That’s life; it teaches.