Saturday, August 22, 2009

@ Traffic Signals

"Oh God, I hope I get through the traffic fast today!!" This thought comes to my mind daily before leaving for office. I am sure that you all would agree that even you do not want to get stuck in traffic.. be it a traffic signal!

But that day, I felt otherwise!!

It was an usual day when I started for office in the morning. Even after lot of praying for smooth traffic, I was stuck in traffic @ the signal for 20 mins!! The traffic was snail paced. And I got really bugged of listening to my music in the car. I switched it off and opened the window to feel little better. Small chirping noises caught my attention. These were small children begging at the signal. Some peeping in the car, some persuading two-wheelers' riders, some just roaming between vehicles and one coming towards me! Oh God.. I can't face this. Yes, I hate signals for this very reason.

But thankfully he stopped few cars ahead of me. He was the smallest of all. I thought of observing the entire scene. I was curious to know how others handle this. And this when I saw a hand come out with a packet of Parle-G biscuits and handed it to that kid!! He was sooo happy. He immediately ran towards the pavement and all his friends joined him. I think they all got their breakfast!

Why was I feeling so happy and relieved? Because the boy didn't come begging to me . Yes I was relieved. But this time I was even happier to see this little kid eating Parle-G biscuits with such a pleasure! The traffic started moving, as I moved little further, I saw an old emaciated begger with complete haggard looks struggling to climb slightly higher pavement to save himself from the moving traffic. I had to stop. I stopped next to him to allow him climb with the help of his stick.

And then I moved on! I wanted to give him money. But I couldn't stop. The signal was green and he was so weak that he could have never been able to run and take the money. I know.. I can never justify this to me!

But I know one thing. I do not want these boys to grow old begging their whole life same as that old guy. Mr. Narayan Murthy has mentioned in his latest book 'A Better India, A Better World' - "Children can not concentrate on their studies if their stomachs are not full and there are many such children in government schools."

You must be thinking what can we do?

I am still thinking. But I want to atleast do my little bit. I have seen how much food we waste in our office canteen!! And I am sure that there must be some food left out everyday. We have one Idea center in our office. I have suggested this idea of supplying this food to any one of the government school. I do not know if this is a feasible option or not. But still...!

People say that we should not promote begging by giving them money. I never gave them anything for these 5 years but I still didn't see their numbers decreasing!!

So... I bought some parle-G biscuits!

15 comments:

Smi said...

hmmm...so some humanization taking place today.So many thoughts after reading this post

1.We always said Parle-G swach aur sasta

2.Company might say "Employees might not concentrate on work if Internet is accessible all day and there are many such bloggers in IT company" just kidding though

3.I am flying tomorrow and I can visualize the scene.

4.All beggars will grow up into veteran beggars :)

Yogesh Goel said...

many r pushed into this situation..
and many chose this profession by themselves....

its just what one is guided about...
just wonder...
will we give them some petty jobs if they intend to do work...NO!! I know it will be the answer from all of us....

and more so for giving money..
i would always prefer things in kind rather than the money itself...

money can be spent in good and bad ways but in their case the bad ways r much more in numbers than the good ones...

good u thought and wrote...
we all think...
we do...
but we know we can do nothing..
isn't it?

Yogesh Goel
ygoel.com

Indian Pundit said...

Hello Vineeta

Excellent sentiments.
I am glad that u thought about it.

Pathetic but yeah if we TRY HARD TOGETHER we can change so many lives......

All it takes is TRYING.......but are we ready to give up some of our free time and work towards the betterment of the downtrodden??????? i dont think so.........really sad but true.

Indian Pundit said...

i am following your blog now.

Vipul Grover said...

U r obsrving ur surroundings a lot these days it seems.. nd only positive things r cuming out of these observation. Keep obsrving, u'll find more solutions.
Tht Parle G thing really clicked. One of my frnd does sumthing similar. evrytime w r out around sum eating joint, if a beggar child cums by, he never pays him bt treats him with some snacks. why? bcoz u nvr know if these kids evn gt 2 keep this money or its taken away by the begging mafia.

Vineeta said...

@Yogesh: Yeah you are rite. No money. We can give them something to eat. Atleast that will fill their stomachs.

@IP: I completely agree with you. We can't think of taking time out frm our busy schedules. Therefore the least.. is @ signals.. anyways u r not doing anything ;-) hehehe!

@Vipul: Thx for appreciating :) I just hope that what I am doing and thinking is atleast doing sm good :)

Unknown said...

I think there are some NGOs who actually take the excess food from the office canteens/ hotels and supply to several institutions which support such children....

BTW for Govt. schools Midday meal is already in place and what I saw here in Bangalore an organization called Akshay Patra is doing a very good job ...

The Parle-G wala idea is a good one will try to implement it ...

Vineeta said...

@Dhiman: Yeah you are right. Even I have heard of Akshay Patra. Since i wasn't sure I thought of checking in my office too :)

Mohan said...

Nice thought, but not the apt solution though. I would be happier to see the root cause being addressed. Finding so many kids on roads is no good. Why can't we have NGO's or government agencies working on troubled kids rehabilitation centers to make them better humans?

I could only wish the 'Genie' comes in real lives of all those kids.

Indian Pundit said...

Look at the BBC report Vineeta.

They have the right picture.I provided the link at the bottom of my post.

Cheers and enjoy.lol

Nisarg Kinariwala.... said...

Just giving a different opinion here.. Have you seen "Tranffic Signal" movie. If no, you can go for it. It will give you a different picture

However, your idea is good. I guess we should take initiative.

Indy said...

long time no post? Where art thou?

Indian Pundit said...

Hey Vineeta

Check out my blog.
An award is waiting for you.

Cheers and Congrats.

Prashansa said...

Giving snacks to them and helping through the NGOs are the best ways to help them!

fryol said...

Ok, giving out biscuits is probably a very nice idea, and it defeats the evil purpose behind why these guys are begging at traffic signals though it gives them benefit. http://fryol.net/?p=47 - that's where I blogged about the evil that is begging.