Sorry, but I don’t give money to beggars. Its not a question of 5-10 rupees that will make me richer, its just my way.

My mum always reminds me how compassionate and emphatic I was during my young age. I used to ask her for “ek suka” (oh well its 25 paisa coin and I am sure kids these days don’t even know about it) and give it to a beggar on the street. Things have indeed changed for me.

I often walk from Ratna Park to Sundhara. Say, it is to save that extra buck I might have to pay to the taxi, if I take that full circle of one way Tudikhel. In the mornings, till 11 its fine to walk on that stretch. After that it becomes chaotic. The Kathmandu Muncipality doesn’t allow the street vendors to keep their stalls before 6pm and during the day time it is like cat and mouse chase between them. There is another lot of people you find on the footpath during this the day time. Even the Muncipality doesn’t bother them.

I don’t want to call them beggars. The word itself is so derogating . But I cannot think of any other word to describe them. All these people do, is sit there and ask for money. I will start from one corner of the street, right outside the post office. There is this mid aged lady with a flex printing of a patient from hospital and a big speaker. “…. Waha ko dubai mrigaula nachalne raw aha 6 mahina dekhi hospital ma bhayeko le waha ko aarthik awastha ramro nabhayeko karan le……tapai ko sahyog ko apekshya garda chau…dhanyabaad”. I don’t remember the exact words but a little girl’s voice goes on and on from the recorder.

Second person I encounter is, this another lady, maybe in her 20s. Perfectly healthy, very well built, lies on a piece of Afgan right outside the Kathmandu Mall. The only problem she has is one of her feet is amputated. She sleeps the whole day right there, and passersby gave her 5-10 rupees each.

Third one of the lot is right outside the NAC building (previously known as RNAC). Funny that the same recording of the little girl goes on loop, just the picture on the flex is different and the name is different in the record. Before I forget to mention, there are in between the foreigner beggars with babies who will make you guilty conscious showing you the baby and saying the baby is hungry, she needs to buy milk. By evening you will see these women around the bhattis in Basantapur. Oh Please! Trust me, the food in those places are a lot more expensive than the booze. All these ladies are there to drink.

I once read in the papers that even the babies are not their own and are hired. The babies are drugged so that they sleep all the time and I started to notice that really! these kids are always sleeping. Something to ponder isn’t it?

I have too many such instances to share. Once I helped this old woman who used to live around my house, and later I came to know that the money I used to give her, she spent it in the bhatti nearby. So I lost it, all my empathy, sensitivity, all of it. It is not that I don't help but I see the need of it very closely. I think they should work and have a living. Call me insensitive but just being rational here.