A lithe, beautiful yet lonesome beggar approached me. She hesitated a little, then shrugged it off, the hesitation, and asked for alms, now since she asked for alms in Hindi there was no possibility of her mispronouncing it and me getting an opportunity to take the conversation in another direction by mistaking alms for arms. I regret it and hence appears in my head an opinion that hints somewhat towards the need for literate beggars. Anyway, so as I said a lithe beautiful yet lonesome beggar approached me. ‘can you spare some money’ she asked, again you see had she asked the same question in English I would have got an opportunity to make it rhyme, my answer I mean. So another pang of regret was about to strike when I reminded myself that it was becoming a little repetitive like this narration.
‘No, I can’t, I don’t have enough, especially when it comes to having enough to be able to part with some’ I replied. She stared back at me upon hearing the answer as if she was exploring the possibility of any need to pretend having not understood it, but she didn’t anyway, so she didn’t need to do much and continually persisted. ‘For god’s sake, in his name, he’ll bless you’ she added.
‘hmmm’ I looked back at her all the while resisting the temptation to make a smart remark as a remark is as smart as the other person makes it to be, with beggars such possibilities are negligible. With beggars you can either have yourself insulted subtly or be engaged in an exchange of words that is not only inconsequential but also endlessly painstaking.
‘hmmm’ she looked back at me.
‘hmmmm’ I looked back at her.
‘hmmm’ by now she had almost given up as she sniffed a level of playfulness on my part. And when I sniffed that she had sniffed, I tried to smile and moved to kick start my bike. Now if you have noticed at moments like these there is something that is highlighted. A most obvious difference between beggars and others. Others have a tendency to react at playfulness, beggars don’t, they are too focused to do that, so they just move on. And she did. Such indifference towards possible opportunities to turn a situation into a joke hurts.