Do They Really Deserve This?

Today I went out on the road and asked, and asked, yet no one gave. I wish I could have a job to provide the necessities for my children, but no one will hire a woman with an amputated leg. I'm sick of being dirty, poor, and useless. I just wish there was some way out of it. My son, Ramu and my daughter, Gudia, work and beg to fill there empty stomachs. Living on a footpath isn't easy with noisy and polluting vehicles passing by you an inch away.

Waking up at dawn and sleeping when the hope of getting any money from passers-by is our daily routine. We are a family of five, two boys, a girl, a husband and me.

She quoted,” Aadmi kuch nahi kamata hai. Woh sirf sharab pe paise fekta rehta hai. Par kya kar sakti hoon, Aadmi hai na mera. ”
My husband does not earn anything. He spends all the money on alcohol. But what can I do? After all he is my husband.

My daughter gets some Prasad from the nearby temple and my son often earns money by pulling heavy boxes for sahebs. The third child is two years old. When he is six or seven, we will have four earning members.

“Kabhi kabhi chaalees pachaas rupye kama lete hain hum, lekin kaafi baar bhookhe pet hi sona padta hai.”

Sometimes we earn forty to fifty rupees but mostly we sleep hungry.

We are tired of such a life. The only feelings we have experienced are grief, regret and jealousy. The day we earn ten or twenty more, we get a glimpse of joy, but it also doesn’t last for long.

“Pata nahi kya paap kiye the pichle janam mein ki aise zindagi mili.”

Don’t know what sins we had committed in our previous birth that we have to suffer like this.

Do they really have to suffer like this? Can’t we, the well-off population lend them some help, some affection. And not if affection, at least offer some sympathy. Please donate your old clothes and stationary to them. It will be of great help. And trust me, the feeling you get after you see that smile on their face and blessing for you in your eyes, your heart will be flooded with joy.

The change will come when all of you will say, like I say, “HAPPY TO HELP  J “

v  By

Rashi Bagadia