Unusual Experience of Life

Valuable lessons learned

The unusual experience

One morning, I was on my way to my office when at the traffic light, I got a red light and I had to stop.

At the stoplight, there were a lot of beggars. I was surprised to see beggars of all ages. Little children asking for alms, women with kids in their arms, senior citizens both male and female in a pitiable condition.

I looked around and one particular beggar woman attracted my attention. She was dressed in black and the clothes looked very worn out. She was covered from head to toe and was also wearing gloves. In her hand, she was carrying a stick.

This beggar did not look old but she had a bit of a strange walk, stepping quite slowly and asking for alms. She came up to my car and spread her hand before me.

I usually gave Rs.10 in Indian money and to senior citizens and people who looked as they could not work for their daily bread.

This beggar did not look so old despite the stick and accelerated walk but something in her made me feel that I should give her a little more. So I took out Rs20 and gave it to her. She was very thankful. She thanked me several times.

I reached my office and busy at work, I forgot about the incident. Two days later, I again saw her. She was thin, emaciated, and frail. She looked hungry.

I gave her an Rs100. She grabbed it from my hand. This time I left but I could not take her out of my system. I thought of her the whole day.

After this incident, I did not see her for a long time. I was wondering where she had gone. Why was I remembering her so much? Why should a beggar woman interest me? Probably because she was a strange-looking woman I thought.

Then, one day, I was buying some vegetables and fruits and I thought I saw her again.

A woman resembled her so much. She was decently dressed. She was not covered from head to toe and she looked like she was from a well-to-do family. At least not the battered kind.

How could Ia ask her if she was a beggar who I had given alms to at the stoplight? I surely thought I was dreaming or was I going crazy?

A week later the beggar lady was back in place. I saw her at the crossroad. Her gloves were missing and I saw an unusual ring on her finger. I immediately recalled the lady at the fruit and vegetable shop with some resemblance to the ring she was wearing.

At work, I shared my thoughts with my colleagues and some friends. They had a great laugh at my misgivings. I told them that I wanted to investigate the matter.

Shall I go to the police I thought? My friends dissuaded me to do so. They asked me what would be the grounds to do so? I had no answer.

I even thought of a private detective but they told me it would be too expensive and I would be foolish to pay a fat some for my personal pleasure and baseless inquisitiveness.

Then how to investigate when we were all working people? By the time I went home she was not there at the stoplight.

As we were making plans to nab her, I saw her again this time without the ring and without the gloves.

How many more days would this mystery go on? Every time in some other mold which would make me doubt again.

Diwali time came and we had four holidays. Friday until Monday. My assistant and my peon were quite adventurous. So they decided that we should follow this woman home and catch her red-handed there.

On the first day that we watched her movements, she gave us the slip and left in the evening. The next day also we were not lucky. On the third day, we took turns to watch her, and in the evening we got the opportunity.

She walked a certain distance and got in an old Suzuki car. We followed her to her home. A beggar had a car and knew driving. This was certainly a mystery.

When she parked her car and went into her house, we also parked at a safe distance. We got down and were pleasantly surprised that the house was moderately alright. It was not very big, not well kept, but was not ramshackle.

We rang the bell and she opened the door. She was middle-aged and she had taken her make-up off and her face looked much better than she looked like when she was dressed up as a beggar.

She was frightened and she recognized me but there was no resistance. I asked her why she acted like a beggar?

She had lost her job she answered as the owners had suffered losses and closed down their business. Her father had passed away. She was living with her mother who was old.

How could she feed her mother? How could she live without any money?

She told us that no one in the vicinity knew that she was begging for alms.

Lessons learned

#1. You must understand a human being's feelings before passing judgment. What looks outside is often masked and has quite a different story when we watch closely.

#2. It is not easy to become a beggar. It is below one’s dignity to spread your hand before others. The position is often that of a lowly human and abuses are also hurled on them.

#3. Every morning before daybreak, the person had to dress and leave before other people in the neighborhood even knew about it, and loads of makeup had to be put on the face and hands to hide one’s personality.

#4. An educated person was going through hard times and it was extremely difficult to do what she did. She could not see her old mother hungry so she resorted to such a lowly measure.

Conclusion

It is most foolish to follow people around. It can be dangerous. It just happened that in this case the woman was not foul and there were no demons inside her house. It is possible that a drug addict or a criminal lived inside the house with her.

You should never poke your nose in unknown people’s lives unless you have an answer and a way to be of some help to them. The guilt feeling that you will get after knowing the other person’s story and being helpless about it is much worse.