Heart of gold

Living a luxurious life outside India often makes us (the NRIs) forget the pitiable condition of a section of our fellow citizens of India.

During my recent visit to India, I met one of my cousins, who was visiting India after a long gap. She was surprised to find beggars almost in every village, town and city, because in the Gulf countries begging is banned.

But she was glad to help the unfortunate ones of the society and said that they accepted with grace whatever she gave them. However, she got irritated when a group of beggars followed her as she came out of a holy place.

“The situation was such that we had to give money to them just to get rid of them and not out of pity,” she said.

Another cousin told her that she cannot generalise.

Recalling her experience, she said that once she and her friends went out cycling together. They were so much engaged in chatting that they failed to realise that they had come out of the city. Suddenly my cousin’s cycle hit a person sitting off the street.

As she went to apologise, she found out that he was very friendly and even shook hands with her. 

But later when she reached home, she realised that she had lost her gold ring. She thought that the person who shook hands with her must have cleverly slipped off the precious ring from her hand.

After a few weeks again she went out riding her bicycle. Suddenly she collided with another cycle and fell unconscious. When she regained her consciousness, she found herself in a hospital. She was told that a very poor man helped her.

She realised that it was the same person whom she had hit earlier, and assumed that he would have stolen her gold ring. She was embarrassed thinking that a man with a heart of gold cannot steal a gold ring.

It is rightly said that only a few people do wrong things and others just suffer the consequences.

(Published in The Gulf Today on October 24, 2015)