The Goan Crazy Beggar



                                         THE  GOAN  CRAZY  BEGGAR
                                                  Philosophy

         The hydrogen sun slowly went off. The sodium vapor lamps slowly became “on”. And the city undertook its night journey well. People who bore the nocturnal signature of the city life came out of their homes for jollification.
         Amidst the relaxing people and the relaxed people scattered over the popular “Goan Crazy” area was a beggar sitting on a platform. The beggar like all other beggars gave a dirty appearance and irregular coarse hair. His enormous black beard had not yet changed its color though he had completed half his life time. With a peculiar body posture, he was slowly stiching small pieces of clothes with a needle and a thread in an attempt to combine them into one. Few days back he managed to get a thread bundle from  a dust bin. Just few minutes back, he found the needle somewhere near a tailor shop.
         Behind the platform, a garment shop camaflouged with rich interiors boasted the presence of expensive, good-looking clothes of all kinds. A family of four got down from a bus and went inside the shop. After few minutes, their purchase was completed and the family left the place. The beggar was still found stiching the small pieces of clothes. After sometime, he stopped the sewing work and examined the jointed rag clothes for their strength. The small thread bundle lifted from the dustbin has been finished and with it diminished the chances for additional strengthening of the clothes.
         A Posh Cinema hall in front of the platform began to draw its high class circle crowd. People kept going inside the compound in small groups. Boys and girls went past the beggar in a hurried manner and filled his nostrills with perfume smell every now and then. Inside the compound, the boys were busy in chatting and smoking and the girls were engaged in conversation and can drinks.
         The beggar slowly slipped the newly stiched ‘dirty clothes’ on his body and checked the fit of it. With little satisfaction, he picked up his huge dirty bag and started to move somewhere.
         About a hundred yards away from the cinema hall was located the “Dog and Dux” shopping plaza which was regarded as one of the best in the city. A young man went inside a colorful neon-lit electronics shop and gleefully bought a music system worth several thousands of rupees.
         Outside the plaza, on its eastern far end, the beggar was searching a dustbin for food left overs. It seemed that the search proved futile for him for he left the place with nothing. Inside the shop, the music system was carefully kept inside a van. In few seconds, the van gently rolled out of the shopping plaza.
         With a hope of finding food leftovers, the beggar walked down the road towards a fast food shop. To his dismay there were only empty paper plates in its dustbin. Due to the fact that wasting food is a small sin, most of the people have dumped it into their stomachs. It has been almost three days since he last had his food. His stomach began to brutally indicate its presence.
         Three men walked out a restaurant with big bellies. Unable to walk freely, one man signalled the car driver to come near them. In few seconds, a car lifted them off and sped up without much noise. The beggar gave an empty look at the car and resumed his search.
         The beggar unlike other beggars did not beg. He only picked up from the dustbins. He never cried. Nobody would respond his tears. And he never laughed and smiled. Laughs and smiles were already owned by the rich and the beautiful.
         The beggar ignored his hunger and walked down the road upto the Sea Beach. The Beach as usual was dancy and musical. The beggar dropped his bag and lied down on the sand. The music of the Beach soothed his ears. Up in the dark sky, the Stars were gently twinkling and the Moon was very radiant. When hands do not have money, the eyes and the ears seem to find their alternate sources of sensual enjoyments.
         In short time, the Sky and the Sea was completely owned by him. Other audiences of the beach did not bother much to enjoy the twinkling of the Stars and the dancing of white waves on the beach. The Sky and the Beach together helped him in forgetting his hunger. Thirst was never a problem for him. There were plenty of public taps in the area.
         Something happened in the political circle. Human bodies went rolling on metal objects with flashing lights and sounding sirens on top of them. The beggar gave a vacant look at the metal objects and rolled his eyes back at the sky. Had he been admitted in a school when he was a small child, he would have fired more neurons in his brain and he too would have taken baths, worn clean clothes and rolled on metal objects just like others do. But nobody admitted him in a school. These Gods seem to be crazy. They put some babies on VolksWagon cars and some on huts near gutter.    
         A horse galloped and went past the beggar. It then suddenly stopped at about a hundred yards. A trained horse rider helped a crying boy to get down. The horse riding perhaps frightened the boy. His parents consoled him and paid the horse rider. Thenafter in an attempt to reduce the tears of their son, they bought two balloons from a balloon man and gave them to him. The balloons stopped the tears and made the boy to smile too.
         The forgotten hunger of the beggar returned back with a vengeance and made him very uncomfortable. The beggar slowly picked up his huge dirty bag and started to move. After a long and tiresome walk, he came near a marriage hall which has been made busy by a wedding. Few audiences present outside the marriage hall, happenend to glance at the beggar and threw a mysterious look at him. The beggar brutally reminded them of their “excess” belongings and made them little bit frightened too. But immediately their minds convinced them of their better financial position and comfort in comparison to him and made them feel good.
         Much to the beggar’s delight, food had been thrown outside the marriage hall’s compound as leftovers. A dog was consuming some of the left overs in a greedy manner. The beggar went near the little mound of leftovers and started to eat. After his eating, he took out a big vessel from his huge dirty bag and started to fill it. Meanwhile the dog finished its dinner and looked at the beggar. It then wagged its tail.
         The beggar began his move. After going back to the platform, he sat down and started to look at the passing vehicles on the busy road. As for the people on the road, the sight of the beggar to some extent changed their line of desirous thinking. Most of them have been thinking in terms of acquisition of possessions which were too high in comparison to the belongings of the beggar.
         As everyone has a tendency to compare himself/herself with others, the sight of the beggar made them to compare themselves with the beggar too. This was detested by their minds because they wanted to become bigger with more objects, more power and more freedom. And this beggar had started playing the ‘spoilsport’. The beggar like all other beggars applied a “harsh brake” and simultaneously reversed their vehicle of thinking.
         Before sighting the beggar, all of their desires had proper justification because they had compared themselves with somebody better than them. But now, they were constrained to accept the betterment of their own position with reference to the beggar.
         An owner of a small house had desired a big bungalow. A man sitting inside a car wanted a big one. A woman with bare neck had desired jewellery. A young man had desired an expensive cell phone. A boy on foot had desired a bicycle. Almost all of their desires appeared “too much” at the visual interception of the beggar. Later on, their frightened desirous minds made them to feel that comparison to the dirty and stinking beggar should not be done for prosperous living.  Their minds also forced them to think that the beggar is paying the price for his laziness. And that Gods created hunger in stomach so that people and other species won’t be idle and lazy.
         As people of different nature passed in the vicinity of the beggar, different kinds of thoughts were generated by them.
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“I might be born just like him in the next life …….” thought a guilty man.
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“This human race is very selfish” observed a lady dressed in white.
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“I don’t mind being in his place but clean clothes will be better” thought a student with extreme exam pressure on a moving bus.
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“Thank God! I have been born in a rich family. Or else I too would have sat like him” reciprocated a young man moving on an air conditioned car.
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“A dirty and stinking beggar “ detested a beautiful woman sitting inside a Mercedes Benz.
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“ Everybody is a beggar. Business people beg for money. Employees beg for promotion. Writers beg for popularity. Politicians beg for power. Bachelors beg for physical pleasure. Students beg for marks. Cine Actors beg for fame. Children beg for toys. Old people beg for life. Only their clothes and methods are different.” observed a Communist man.
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“Becoming a somebody is difficult and becoming an absolute nobody like him is equally difficult” pondered a philosopher.
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“This beggar might be a God in disguise” thought a religious man and thrust a one rupee coin into the beggar’s hand.
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“You don’t know these days beggars have accounts in Swiss Banks” seriously informed a young man to his friend.
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“A relaxed life” observed a very tense business man.
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“Even if this dirty and stinking beggar wants to work who will give him job” muttered an unemployed graduate.
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“A man suffering his Karma” thought a Hindu brahmin.
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“A non workaholic” condemned a Japanese tourist.
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         The beggar unaware of the public opinions regarding him sat looking at the people and the moving vehicles on the road. The dog which had its food along with the beggar came near him and wagged its tail in a friendly manner. The beggar gave an empty look at it. The dog went closer to him and gently licked his dirty hand. The beggar patted it softly. The dog wagged its tail again !!!
  
Written by  Gokula Anand                                 Year:  2001 

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