Tap tap tap tap. An eerie tapping.
What is that noise? Its a young girl trying to get our attention. She's tapping her fingernails on our car window while we're stuck in traffic. Its dark out and its beginning to rain.
Tap tap tap tap.
What does she want? She's trying to sell us some things made by her family. They are poor. The driver rolls down the window and asks her if she goes to school. Selling items on the road is how her family makes money. Her parents need her to do this for the family. She does not go to school.
This was the third time I felt chills through my body from such tapping.
The last time was on the train from Pune to Bangalore (a 21 hour trip). This little boy with no shirt on and a string for a belt was on his hands and knees on the train floor with a hand broom sweeping all around. He stopped at each row and tapped his hand on the seat to ask for money. If you didn't look at him he still stayed there and tapped louder. Man- that was pretty bad.
The first time was horrible though. It wasn't just a noise. I was in a market in Pune. Toren was shopping for gifts for his family. I felt a prod on my leg. A nudging. I wasn't sure what it was. I looked around to see that it was an old lady in a wheelchair. She was poking my leg with the stub of her arm that was wrapped in a cast. OH MY GOODNESS. That was a VERY uncomfortable feeling.
These people that tap, they are just trying to say "Hey you. You person with money. Look at me! Don't ignore me- Don't ignore the poor!" They force us to face the uncomfortable reality that there are millions of people who must resort to begging. Things need to change.
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Yes, this is so difficult, isn't it? Here in the US (and here in San Francisco) lots of people on the street looking for handouts - and from my experience in India (and elsewhere) I decided to always take a couple of extra dollars (coins) with me when I go walking around the city, and give them away. Every day a dollar or two. In India I try to hang onto 5 rupee pieces and give away some of them every day (some friends give 10 rupee notes) - but there is SO MUCH poverty and so many people living by begging. (And according to friends it is *much better* than it was years ago...)
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