Earbuds at traffic signals

[bottle]

^ thanks i was just going to have lunch :P please do add a warning to the title !

[reignofchaos]

The thing I do at traffic signals is to just ignore all people that try to sell me something, try to wipe the windscreen or come begging for alms, regardless of how pityful or homeless/famished they appear. Why encourage them by paying even a penny. This way if there is one beggar today, there would be half a dozen tomorrow.

[benbsb29]

What i hate the most is when they come carrying a child, and use the child to derive sympathy. Needless to say, i dont encourage them, and have never paid them even a penny.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

What i hate the most is when they come carrying a child, and use the child to derive sympathy. Needless to say, i dont encourage them, and have never paid them even a penny.

This child carrying begging is actually quite a racket. These infants are actually hired by these forlorn looking 'mothers' on a daily basis.

[benbsb29]

John, what makes you actually hate them is when they come and literally stick these kids onto the windscreen and windows. They also dirty a clean car through trying to peer in through the tinted windows.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

This child carrying begging is actually quite a racket. These infants are actually hired by these forlorn looking 'mothers' on a daily basis.

forget hiring shiring... come to the hi-tech signal early in the morning (before 8.30am) and you will see how organized the begging racket is. A matador truck comes laden with these beggars. One lot of them are unloaded at the signal with a supervisor type of a guy heckling them and placing them at correct places while the matador moves on with the rest of the beggars in it, probably to unload them at the next target junction.

Again around 9 or so an urchin comes running with a dirty looking plastic bag (the thin, transparent kind) with a few dhoklas in it and hands it over surreptitiously to the two beggars at the signal on which you are waiting. Its probably their daily quota of breakfast supplied by the begging contractor.

Similarly, at nights, on the shilparamam signal I have seen the same supervisor type guy taking two of the urchins behind a tree and hitting them black and blue, probably because they were being too playful instead of being on the business. Its a regular grind here.

[esteem_lover]

supervisor type of a guy

Fagan ?

Is this straight from Oliver Twist ?

[benbsb29]

Zappo, they also have a fairly huge group at the Masab Tank flyover too.
Its like they're taking part in some outdoor camping activity.

[Zappo]

i think its the same group. because on another day little after 9.30pm i think i saw the same matador (light green color, wooden half panel to close the rear exit) picking up some beggars at khairatabad circle. frankly speaking i have always heard and read about these groups but its here in hyderabad that i first saw them working as a group on a regular basis.

and they include all sorts. toddlers, kids, teenagers and then of course the adults. in fact inspite of knowing everything i got fooled somedays back in parting with a 2 rupee coin. normally i do not even look at them. but that day in the morning i was waiting at the hi-tech signal from the kukatpally side. all of a sudden a small baby girl came to the driver's side. she started pulling faces and lifted her small cuddly but dirty palm towards me from the other side of the glass. she had that disarming, cherubic baby smile. i was like, shucks such a cute baby, she should be playing with teddys instead of begging on the signal. and she looked a bit hungry as well. i did what i never do. i rolled down the glasses and took a 2 rupees coin from the coin holder and gave it to her. of course my wife was astounded as she knows the vitriol i pour out when the talk veers down to these signal beggars. anyways, the little girl gave me such a sweet, angelic smile and then happily ran across two other cars on the signal as my glass was rolling back up. she jumped up the high wide divider with lot of grass and shrubs that municipality plants nowadays. and then... she just handed it to a adult female beggar who was happily chatting with one of her 'sisters'. she nonchalantly took the money without a look at the little girl and kept it in a plastic pouch and kept chatting.

i was fuming seating inside the car. meanwhile the baby girl was happily playing with a little boy, maybe a bit older than her on the road. probably, she had earned her keep for the next half an hour!

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

But what's revolting about these things now we know the truth is the are made from cat hair?

Well spotted!

I not only didn't spot it but I'm fairly certain I'd make the same mistake...

Thank you!

You see, while you gentlemen are discussing beggars and ooze, Thad and I are having fun with English.

[Wheeliej]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

What i hate the most is when they come carrying a child, and use the child to derive sympathy. Needless to say, i dont encourage them, and have never paid them even a penny.

Those kids are not theirs. They are hired @ Rs. 12 per day.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I do not doubt reports from people like Zappo --- in fact, hsi report is a lot more authoritative than the usual 'all beggars are mafia' stuff: he's seen these groups.

I still don't find it such a black and white simple answer, though. What a lousy job, eh? And what choice do these people have?

Probably also true that some of those babies are hired out. The girl holding the baby is often patently too young to be the mother. But it can still be the sister's baby, or the sister. And there can still be some bad story (often an abusive man) behind the situation.

It's probably just some stupid Brit animal thing --- but the people I will never give to are the ones with monkeys!

[esteem_lover]

The people I never give to are the ones that i do not know of. In India, there are so many people that you can help, so that makes it easier to choose whom to help. Most often than not, the beggars that we see on the roads turn out to be richer than some of us.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

The people I never give to are the ones that i do not know of. In India, there are so many people that you can help, so that makes it easier to choose whom to help. Most often than not, the beggars that we see on the roads turn out to be richer than some of us.

Beggar pays Rs 36,000 premium

PATNA: She is no small-time beggar. For, she not only boasts of two insurance policies for which she pays Rs 36,000 as premium annually, she also has a bank account with a hefty amount to boot.

Meet Sarvatia Devi. In her early forties, Sarvatia has been a beggar since she became a widow about 25 years ago. “They know me well enough at the STD booth on Ashok Rajpath where I go every day to exchange coins, which I collect begging, for notes,’’ she says pulling out a pile of notes from the sack which she keeps while begging near Darbhanga Kalibari here. Coins are of no use to Sarvatia. For, the insurance agent and the agent of a local finance company, whom she meets in the evening near Patna Market, only accept currency notes to deposit.

One among the city’s burgeoning population of professional beggars, Sarvatia is neither a destitute nor a homeless . “On Tuesdays and Saturdays when people throng the Kalibari, I earn between Rs 300 and Rs 400. Other beggars of the locality do not generally encroach on my territory ,’’ she says.

On other week days, however , she sells vegetables both in the morning and evening. “Begging is no longer a compulsion for me. But its easier to beg here as the police do not trouble me. Moreover, the people are kind,’’ she says.

Today she boasts of having a “comfortable home’ ’ behind Ashok Cinema besides a wellsettled married daughter. After she was provided a home for shelter by the state government , Sarvatia started to make savings for her only daughter. “About five years ago I met an insurance agent who suggested that I should invest my money by purchasing policies. I fell for it and opted for two policies,’’ she says, adding that she also has a bank account.

Even her insurance agent admits: “The woman has purchased two short-term policies worth Rs 3 lakh and Rs 1 lakh for which she pays an annual premium of Rs 31,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.’’

Interestingly, she has travelled across the country and even been on pilgrimage to many holy places. All by begging . “It’s a fun travelling on trains free of cost. I board any train and beg till I reach my destination,’’ says Sarvatia, laughing aloud.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/1755657.cms

PS: There was news in TOI Bangalore sometime back about a beggar who owns an house in Bangalore

[Thad E Ginathom]

There are always such stories.

It is like saying that every body who has a job is earning in lacs per month. All of us would know that is wrong, but it is convenient to say, on the basis of occasional examples, that all beggars are rich!

But I do agree with esteem_lover that it is good to focus ones charity and to help those we know.