Every morning I stood at the Bamboo Villa bus stop in central Calcutta for my office, a
beggar at the footpath used to salute me in gesture. Wordless greetings convey
the meaning explicit cutting cultural barrier. But I refused to make a meaning
to his salutation lest the onlookers spot me and shrug at me. Association often
brings you value.
Months passed. It was winter then. I saw him he felt the sting
of cold in the rags. He smiled at me with the same gesture. I took compassion
on him now. The next day I brought a used old sweater and offered it to him.
‘Please wait for a minute’, he said. Though I had turned away
from him, I had to hold. While I was waiting, he was busy inspecting the
sweater I offered. He examined the selvage, checked the helm, turned the chest
pocket inside out, and rubbed the cloth at an end. He checked it with a
master’s hand many times over, in and out. I couldn’t understand what he was
trying to descry. I was but watching him with stifling passion.
‘It’s of no use to me, sir. Please take it back’, he returned the
sweater with a cold face. The smile was absent from his face this time. I was
dumb. I took the sweater scratching my head thinking why he returned it.
He saw it rather with an eye of a seller than with an eye of a
user. My sweater fell short of sartorial elegance on one hand and was far away
from raffish frame at another. It was not as good that he could sell it, and
earn money. It was neither as bad that he could wear it himself. My sweater did
not qualify for a beggar’s uniform: he then could not sell his abject condition
and win the compassion of the people. So it was of no use to him. He returned
the sweater with a great choice.
His this behaviour reminded me of the situation when
Rabindranath Tagore once gave a ‘gold coin’ to a beggar in London, and the
beggar returned it to him too coldly.
Note: This story has been written in commemoration of gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's 151st birth anniversary this May.
Note: This story has been written in commemoration of gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's 151st birth anniversary this May.
Author’s Bio:
Khurshid Alam is a senior technical writer with an IT company and writer and
editor with CLRI.
The best way to give a tribute to Rabindrantah Tagore.
ReplyDeleteKhurshid,
ReplyDeleteOne day, I had stopped my bike at the Mahalakshmi Station signal for it to change to green.Just as I was looking around, a beggar approched me with his outstreched right hand.Showing emapathy, I took out a five rupee coin and gave it to the urchin.He took the coin in his hand and after studying it, he returned it to me with a dry comment_____
{" Aaj kal bahute mehngahi hi, kum se kum dus rupaya to do"}
Manohar Bhatia.