Traffic Signals...

I am sure all of us have been onlookers to the pathetic situation that prevails at the traffic signals in all metros… The traffic signals are by far the most popular places to beg … Hyderabad is no exception…

Every time we get stopped at a traffic signal, we are surrounded by scatterings of these people, more or less kids who clean your windshield, offer to sell you something or just basically beg… Some of them are girls barely in their late teens, supporting a kid on her hip with one trailing behind her, holding an empty feeding bottle in her hands… begging for money, clothes etc etc..

You know when you see the plight of those kids that they carry around, half swathed with bandages on the head to evoke sympathy,… you know it’s a sham (the bandages and all), but what draws you to look at them is the fact of how sick the poor kid actually looks… that kiddo’s face is all tired, droopy and fatigued… it looks like it can drop off anytime in to another world.. The effects of carrying it around in the hot sun, all throughout the day without giving it proper food…

Why give birth to it when you know that you can’t give it a good life… Gosh! There are so many of them in all places that it wrenches the heart to look at them and see them suffer like that… there should be a law against them procreating when they do not have the capacity or capability to sustain those lives that are entrusted to them… there should be an answer to this!!

It’s not just kids!! You can see old people, not even being able to stand on their feet properly… poor things stooping so low, unable to withstand the heat and all the while begging for a paisa or two… it’s disheartening to see the way people behave with them… they are almost the age of your own parents or grandparents.. What’s wrong if you part with Rs.2/- or more for people like this instead of young ones who can actually work for a living..!!

I dunno… after a point of time… it’s even scary to be halted at traffic signals… The beggars, urchins, old people all are at least scraping for a living… Or so you condition yourself to think!! There’s worse in store… These signals have also become collecting points for the ‘eunuchs’… And that’s seriously scary… god forbid if you are in an auto or a two-wheeler by any chance… you’ll be troubled incessantly by these people and more often than not its only guys dressing up as them…not really people who are in that state!! There was this article in the newspaper here recently which stated that people were actually being harassed by these ‘eunuchs’ for money… they grab, hit and even subject you to bad language in the middle of the road if you refuse to pay up… No point even if you are a girl!! You are still subjected to the same crude treatment… neither the traffic police, nor the auto-driver you are with makes an effort to stop them …. Wonder what’s holding them back!!! Is it fear… disgust… what??!?!?!!

At the end of it all, you just despair over the situation as do a zillion others, make a few comments on how the country is never going to improve as long as these people are on the roads and just move on…!! You brush it off as a random feeling, a scene best forgotten that happens once in a while and get on with your life as they do with theirs..!!! And most of the times, even if some Good Samaritan wants to do something to create some sort of a change, they are dissuaded saying that this state of affairs will never change conveniently putting the blame on the existing government…

And we call ourselves the proud citizens of a developing country - INDIA….