When we talk about beggars and homeless people, we all fall down the slippery slope of thinking about so many other irrelevant things that could not possibly have us worry or empathize with them in any fashion. We see others misfortunes either as reminders of our bliss or as painful picture of sadness that is worth our sympathy. We see many things in many perspective, some optimistic, others pessimistic, but one thing remains, the beggar is still in dire need, for food and clean water, and most importantly a future.

Some were born into a life of poverty. They did not choose this path, but how cruel was the hands of fate to do such a thing. Some were born with a silver spoon and others into a life of little woes and troubles, leading a comfortable, rose-covered water-bed. Call it luck or fate, we have no latitude as to what cards we are dealt, but as the famous quote goes, we can always choose how we play the hand.

I was in Mumbai and subsequently Bangalore a few days back, and I was surprised, then appalled at the atrocious levels of poverty staring back at my pupils throughout my trip there. The income gap divide was literally so large, Dora couldn’t explore it. People were suffering from malnutrition and dying from other preventable diseases without the proper medicine and aid that you and I, living in the first world country, take for granted with the ease of access of good medication and medical facilities.

In Singapore, being a developed and powerful nation, we have drinking water from the tap. Hawker centres, shopping malls, house taps and even Ion Orchard toilets have clean, potable water that we can safely consume. Back in India, the water is unsafe even from the taps of Government buildings and 5-star Hotels!

The pollution levels are horrible and litter clutter the city streets everywhere we went. The traffic was stupefying as it never ceases to jam up every time we were on the road, less in the wee hours of the night. There were beggars and homeless people, half naked, with empty eyes gaping at the passer-by, wading through the slow traffic on the roads begging for alms and money. It was heart-breaking for me, to witness a small child, barely 5 years of age, running around bare-footed, half-naked, feet blackened from the dirt and dust, begging for what little spare change tourist in their Tuk-Tuks can offer. Their eyes were not filled with miserable tears of sorrows like I would have expected, but it was gleaming with the charm of a mischievous child, treating this ungodly routine of begging and horrifying state of defilation (think about the carcinogenic pollution, the dangers of on-going traffic and malnutrition he faces on a daily basis) as a lifestyle they have to survive with. I don’t know why, but guilt and pity filled my heart. A rational response to an irrational event I witnessed.

The situation in 3rd world countries is bad. Really bad. Don’t pretend that it anymore worst that it should be, simply because it is BAD. We cannot imagine, especially when we are living in such a sterile and lovely environment such as Singapore and other 1st world country. It is a situation none of us would want to go through. Go on and help whenever, wherever you can, however little you can. It makes a difference. Some may argue that we may never see the day that income gaps are eliminated and that poverty will be permanent in every society, but I say heck it, what’s wrong with trying?

Neo didn’t give up even when he knew Smith couldn’t be stopped; Captain Jack Sparrow pressed on despite all the odds telling him he could never make it to the fountain of youth; Rocky went the distance despite being the underdog and severely outmatched by Apollo Creed; Chris Medina did not give up on his fiancé despite her being paralysed and disfigured after the car crash and in fact married her; so who are we to give up on the poor and needy when they need us the most?

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