Being Human

I walk down the skywalk over the Santacruz Station. Watching people pass by looking up-to-down at me; a stray dog has nothing to follow; so he wanders off to any strange sound, just like me. In a dingy corner on the bridge, which locals treat it as their own personal spittoon, is a beggar, very old with his palms stretched out to every walking person and simply pleading with mercy and calling out blessings for all who spare and don’t give a penny.

It was out of the blue where I will to share, only share a penny that belongs to me, give away and dish it out only because of my polite heart was filled with sympathy. Some more blessings from his mouth were transferred into the pockets of my karma. I walk away and stand aside to wait for my friends. Engaging myself into a Derridian talk, I divert my attention to something more significant and advanced.

On my route back, I check my pocket for the change given to me by the bus conductor. Finding it missing, I check again. The missing penny had its root in the morning when I offered it to the beggar. I then realized, how easy it was for me to forget the charity that started my morning. The CHARITY, perhaps, only namesake was actually an act of sympathy, pity, shame and self-loathing. If it wasn’t for sharing or sparing a penny but offering, it would have been a genuine charity. I heard bells ringing in my mind recalling a poem by Eunice de Souza “Feeding the Poor at Christmas”.

Lucky was that poor man, who didn’t have to think too much about morals and virtues. I, the giver is now muddled of not knowing what is genuine and ingenuine. We should be great liars to call ourselves connoisseurs and aficionados, while we can barely differentiate between our mind and heart. Playing GOD, is all we like to do but we are turning away from the real essence of being what we truly are, a simple human.