The Indian Kaleidoscope-PART 1

What comes to our mind when we think of the word 'beggar'?Conventionally-"one who begs for money or food and makes a living with that",right?Beggars abound in India.For every rich child born,there are probably hundred born to beggar parents!Not a very good sign...but that is not exactly what i will be writing about!My concern is better explained with one question--"are beggars born or can they be created?" This thought popped into my clattered mind one evening,as i was returning from the Infant Jesus Church,which is a place i visit quite often and encounter a nightmarish variety of beggars anyways!
So i had just got down from the BMTC.It was about 7 in the evening,but already pretty dark.I was walking cautiously on the sideway,holding onto my hand-bag(there are always certain miscreants interested in passers-by of the opposite sex!!)So,i was walking,conscious of every sound,every movement possible.That was when i heard a voice speaking in English,quite a pompous Yorkshire English at that!!!I will always remember his voice..."Let them come.I am not scared.We have to fight,my friends..no backing out now..we have to..."!! Normally if it was during the day and if i was not already in a pre-conditioned,apprehensive state of mind,the voice & the words would hardly have had any effect on me!But as it were,i could see nothing around me except the odd bushes on the right and the one-way on the left,the sudden proclamation stunned me to a sudden halt(not to mention the eerie feeling that coiled around my heart!).I expected something supernatural maybe,but my logical alter-ego was telling me that it was some random IT professional,walking behind me & speaking over the phone to his clients!This thought comforted me somewhat and i strained my ears & neck to detect the source of those proclamations!
However,what met my eyes did not quite register in my brains at first sight.There was this old,scrawny li'l man,dressed in a ragged and shabby kurta,torn & tattered in various places!
His face was hidden behind a huge,white beard and dirty,matted hair covered his head & shoulders.He held on possessively to a huge rug-sack overflowing with rubbish picked up from the road.
I was stunned at the stark contrast to the pre-conceived image my mind had related to the flawless English which i had heard,and this quintessential beggar which met my eyes just added to my state of utter bewilderment!Here was a typical Indian beggar,who had been reduced to poverty owing maybe to his insanity or maybe his insanity had been the result of his fall in society!I closed my eyes for a few seconds,took in this experience with a pinch of salt,and stored this memory away in a corner of my mind.It was scary.His words,his knowledge exposed his past-he had been educated well-so what went wrong?
I am never going to know.But in India,where such stark contrasts and shocking juxtapositions,are not unusual,to say the least,my experience was perhaps not such a big deal,when you look at it from a greater perspective!!