Sunday, 6th February - 08:30 am
As usual the street urchins and little beggars swarmed our compartment. And this time realizing there was a foriegn lady amidst us, they really thought they stood a chance. So, this young girl (Who yet again sang Pardesi .. pardesi jaana nahin) and her younger brother stood before her for quite sometime and crooned at the top of their voice. After sometime, they started they started nibbling her arm and started asking for money. She very sweetly gave them an apologetic smile, and told them in hindi "Mere paas, sirf ek sikka hai. Woh muje chahiye. Maaf kijeye" (I am wondering how many times she's been forced to say it that she's memorized it so well). The kids looked at her for sometime, went back and everyone was glad that they understood. After sometime, they came back this time with about 15-20 other little kids. Now, all of them started nibbling her arm. Finally, an exasperated Mr.Verghese who was sitting next to her shooed all of them away.

That moment - I felt ashamed. Having been there in europe and known how it is there, I could imagine how irritating they would find the whole experience. I felt like a kid who got a bunch of his stinkingly rich kids into his house. I knew our financial state, I had no problems staying in it, the facilities I had were adequate for me - but when the kids arrive and look around, there's this instantaneous sense of shame that you then cover under a lot of high sounding justifications. But the feeling's there - pricking you.
- posted by Super Ted @ 1:44 AM