Sunday 28th Apr, 2024
G.A.DAR
An old beggar woman in her fifties , claiming to be from Rajori is often seen begging for last over a decade now at the Airport road gate . She has developed wrinkles on her face , due to hard labour and want in her youthful days , as such she appears haggard and older to her age but her stout bodily strength and resilience suggests that she has not pasted her fiftieth year as yet, she is a Gujar women . continuous exposure to sun has tanned her skin ,as such she looks elderly and this feature is affording her added advantage to her profession as every passenger rushing to airport for a long travel ,when stopped by police at gate for longer while ,thinks that offering alms to this elderly women in want before entering the main Airport gate would at least save him from ordeal of checking and harassment at the hands of security staff inside, who claim that they must harass even some times misbehave with fashionable ladies and every sardar and respectable persons in the interest of his /her security. It is human nature to think that so refusing to shell out a coin to poor beggar out side proves costly sometimes when security personnel inside ask you to open your attaché for manual checking and disarray your clothes , leaving you bewildered , and next time the passenger remains extra alert to look for this elderly women ,so that she accepts the alms before they enter the main gate and save themselves from the so called misbehaviour of staff ,when you offer yourself for molestation and luggage bags for dishevelment ,if ever ordered to be opened for any minor reason , like you have kept ,a knife or laptop etc in your luggage.
Anyway , God’s ways are strange and this is how the beggars at gate make a buck for days living. As good people think that giving a coin to a beggar will not allow an aeroplane to meet an accident in mid air .In her early career this beggar women often used to enter household in the near by vicinity for begging and as a matter of her routine she would visit out house too and had perfected in giving “bandi-dauva ‘ blessings before and after receiving alms . To avoid severe cold and harsh winter She disappears from this area in November and goes to Rajouri and returns in March to restart her work here .
It was in Mach 2011 , that though a coincidence she befriended me and ever since she tells all about her secrets to me , if l ever ask her. She was earlier reticent and never told about her day’ s earrings or where she came from etc , but that coincidence changed her mind set altogether .I do not know why but perhaps she could see some similarity after I was very harsh to her. Anyhow , on a Monday morning in March 2011 .sun was brightly shinning above at 9.30 AM and this time i had changed to my office dress and suddenly l saw this beggar women entering smilingly from our main gate, I laced my shoes and by that time she was besides me and she as usual asked for alms . I searched my court pocket and found a small coin , which I offered her.
She straight way refused to accept it , pleading for a Rs 100 note instead , she continued with her bandi dua which did not have much effect on me . I tried to ward her off but she again refused, Now she said you are a big officer , and your son , whom she probably knew is soon going to be bigger officer than you soon ,so you have to give Rs 100 note for his good health and progress on his life and she almost blocked the way of smaller exit door in the gate,” l was shocked at her behaviour now, (as my son about whom she was talking was no more ) so , keeping my calm , l asked her my son has already become a very big officer , you better go and ask for money from him , he will give you Rs 1000 note there. .
Not understanding my intend she asked ” but where is your son now, ” I replied he is sleeping in so and so graveyard , ” she could now understand well what I meant, and she made way for me , but she started weeping bitterly as if her own son had died, I again asked her to take tenor , but she now said ,I donot need all this money now , and added what shall I do with this money. I thought she is still insisting on Rs 100 so , rather unwillingly I offered her Rs 100 note , but she said she won’t accept it this time , but some other time ,and stepped out of door , I soon came out boarded my car , hurriedly , thinking about the incident and her reply .”what will I do with this money . ” Did she not need it has she enough money, or did she tell me that what shall I do with money now ,All this confused me while I sank in my car seat till suddenly car stopped at my office l dis -boarded and entered vacantly my office.
A few days latter , I saw her at Airport road she wished me , I asked if she would take that Rs 100 now , she said no , no . Give me Rs 10 only. I gave her her a tenor and left for office. But my curiosity to know about her personal life increased like a flame to a heap of dry stack of grass. On a holiday I saw her going from one car window screen to another asking for alms, I watched her for a while , till she saw me and she gave a wry smile, l asked her where she had been during winter , she said to Rajouri. And added it is warm there and she spend her winter with family etc.she also told me that they had to sell her all sheep one by one after death of her husband to feed her family . Adverse circumstances forced her to begging ,a decade ago , but for her I’ll luck , her elder son she often tells is diabetic and is unable to earn a living. She has to feed him and his family too.
There are some who own next to nothing but by dint of their hard labour they made fortune in city Srinagar but there are also some who owned a respectable living at least but when circumstances took a turn they resorted to begging in this city intially and continue in the same profession till date, this is irony of fate , God never changes the condition of any person , till he himself wishes / strives ,to do so . Here is an example to illusterate this .
Last year I saw her in a leading ’ TABA’ out side Airport , this shop is run by a Behari , who intially worked as a Panday Donaywalla ( a utensil wash boy ) at a tea stall at Santa Nager some two and a half decade before for Rs ten a day but soon leant the art of running a tea stall of his own and two decades before he took a shop here in the vicinity on rent and kept his family in an Annexe of a nearby house free of, the owner in fact needed a chowkidar for his house while he and his Mrs were out on duty , so they preferred to keep his Hindu family as a type of chowkidar , this Behari tea seller is now ,one of the richest business man here as his sales on tea samosa, chilly , ice cream soda bottles, etc is over a lac of Rs in cash daily. This business man who came to this city as a pauper from Bihar and was engaged in a tea shop as Pandya doonay walla , has now shifted to a respectable quarter in posh area where he pays rent of Rs 18000 a month and lives comfortably now.
Beggars have a human heart , they sometimes give a coin to another beggar on way for good luck , they have their fixed points too, they fight for retaining their sovereign right over the point or 100 yard stretch on the road , they never allow another beggar to usurp the vintage point of their begging .physically challenged, Non -state subject beggars have contractors , who leave them on road side for begging for the day and collect them in the evening , they give them food and daily allowance and rest of the money is snatched by the non state subject master / contractor , who takes them from city to city as weather changes or at approach of Idd, or Ramazan , their are estimated three lac beggars brought in from other states to j& k before holy month of Ramzan, in addition to over a lac beggars who stay for summer , Kashmir has round the year all season resident beggar population of fifty thousand,.some beg daily some on Fridays in front of mosques but all of them beg daily in holy month of Ramzan . When people of Kashmir are extremely generous to poor and needy , it is because of generosity of people of Kashmir that nobody has died due to starvation here , despite adverse conditions and over a three lac of children orphaned for last three years in this on going conflict . I salute to people of Kashmir who despite thier own pressing needs keep the orphaned and destitute s needs in mind when they undertake a travel or celebrate a special occasion like IDD or observe a fast in holy month of RAMZAN.
Beggar Home.in Srinagar , is in shambles, as are our government schools . The poor have no access to education as these schools are frequently closed by government, this is sorry state of affairs, schools and government colleges have 60 days of academic activities now annually , rest is all declared holidays or dang a- facade.