@Mt. Abu

Mubarak Taj @ Mt. Abu, 1986

memories

@chowpati, mumbai 1974

old memories

me in white with mubarak taj on my left and abid chacha on my right papa clicked in Mt. Abu 1986.

begging children- we as a society are responsible

Following is a mail received from naveen gulia, of www.adaa.inADAA – Apni Duniya Apna Ashiana (Our World Our Home), is an effort aimed at helping, assisting and guiding the lives of street children, orphans, physically handicapped children and destitute children.

We as society are Responsible

The number of half naked, under fed, mud covered children begging on the
streets is increasing day by day. We as a society are responsible.

Yes, Danny Boyle has made a film showing some one pouring hot oil into a
childs eyes. We love the story, we have some one to blame.

Who will tell us that the real villains are us. The only reason children
are used for begging is that they can collect anything from 150Rs to 400rs
a day in coins. The coins we give to these children to make ourselves feel
great and charitable. Those coins are the reason these children are being
made to beg.

If you want to help these children give them a food packet, a biscuit
packet, a fruit. But for these children’s sake ‘no coins’. Till the time
these children can successfully collect coins for the elders who send
them, more and more of them will be sent to beg in bad conditions.

Yes, slumdog got oscars, people enjoyed when a kid jumps in shit, or when
a childs eyes are gouged out or when the policeman uses dirty abuses or
when slumdog wins a million and well yes, people enjoyed music too. But
when the child is telling other begging children “a small baby with you
means triple money , a blind boy means double money”  how many realised
‘money’ is the reason these children are being exploited. We give money,
we are responsible.

Let us do a social experiment. Let us all give coins to every begging
child everyday and let us see the result in 10 days time (we will possibly
have ten times the number of children begging). When will we learn???

Yes, this doesn’t appear as spicy and interesting a story. To make it
interesting, I will need Rahman’s music, I will need a child jumping in
shit, a childs eyes being burnt, police torturing an innocent and poor boy
and using choicest abuses, a tv showhost mocking a boy because he is a
chaaywala, amusing incidents ---- but where is the story of the beggar
child who is still having to beg because of us.