The Beggar at the Roadside

Who has ever thought of how a beggar on the roadside has his food? Have you ever wondered about how the woman on the street with her child makes both ends meet in her life? Oh yes. You will have ready made answers. They beg. They go for prostitution... I think that is as unfair as someone calling you a 'bas**rd.' Since those human beings live on roads, anyone can assume anything about them? Can I talk so bad about them just because they are not privileged enough to respond to me? Again, it is unfair. If I don't know what a man on the road eats, a woman on the road does, how those children grow up, I don't have the rights to make conclusions on them. What do I know? Nothing, except that they exist in a pathetic condition.

I have often wondered about the meaning of happiness. Does this meaning change according to circumstances? What a rich human does for joy is not what a middle class person would do. Certainly a beggar wouldn't do what a middle class man does. But the outcome is the same- happiness. Does that mean that there are different kinds of happiness? Rich, middle class and poor happiness? This would bring a smile onto everyone's face, I am sure, because all of us know that even if that which brings happiness is different, happiness itself would be the same everywhere.

This universality of happiness prompts me to ask this question: "what then does it matter, whether you are poor or rich?" I know very well that this question would be dismissed as a rhetorical one. But don't you see a pinch of reason in there? If yes, kindly foster your humanness. If not, kindly try be human!!!

Coming back to those who beg, I am still confused about who is happy and who is not. The traditional and religious teaching would talk endlessly of the joy and peace of possessing less- less luggage, more comfort. The one who begs not only suggests that the other possesses more, but also accepts that he/she possesses less. In other words, an empty hand and the not-so-clean face behind it yells at you that you are unhappy because you possess more. The eyes that sparkle at the coin you toss at him/her also challenges you to become equal to him/ her.

Radically speaking, all are invited to become beggars. Possessions create unhappiness. Possessiveness creates unhappiness. But that unhappiness is liked by people. If the ultimate goal of life is happiness, the most successful life would be that of beggars. The next time you see one, give or don't give a coin, but do it with some respect, because they are more successful than you...

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