Ek Rupeya De-de Baba!

How often have you given a nickel to the beggar on the street? Nickel?! My bad! The Nickel-land does not have beggars. It's only the rupiya and the taka rashtra that has this phenomenon. So anyway, I am not one of those philanthropists who 'have a heart' and flick a coin in the direction of a few tweens begging on the roads. And the reason is that; this coin does not really go into helping them, but is used by their dada to take care of his needs. I always end up counseling these urchins in the following way, "Ye sab kyun kar rahe ho? Sarkari school mein jao aur naam likhao. Kuch kaam kar lo. Vocation centres kitne sare hain.."

Alas! It never helps.

But THAT is not what I intend to elaborate upon. Digressive, me.

We have been doing the rounds of various organisations for the sponsorship of Cognizance 2011 for the past fortnight. Yes, yes! IT is back. Bigger and better (#Cheap Publicity). But as I was meandering my way around the corridors of power, and crawling through the Diplomatic Enclaves, I realised it's a tough job to make someone give you their moolah. Most of the times, they are busy, or not available. Once they do give you half a minute of their useless time, it's all about, "We don't have such provisions for you..". Worse come worse, "We've had a bad experience with such organisations in the past, so never contact us in the future."

So, now I think of these sahebs as variants of myself- the person who is capable of shelling out a chavanni to the needy, but never does so thinking it's futile. Not that this experience is going to change my views of the beggars. I am too old and obstinate for that. Nor am I saying that Cognizance 2011 is going to be a poor show. We've managed a good rakam despite these glitches and there's still oh-so-much-time! But all I am saying is that understanding and sympathy help in making us more human. Humanity is based upon these tenets.

Anywhoo, it's time for us to start our ek rupeya de-de baba routine again!