Sometime back as we were leaving a restaurant, a forlorn looking elderly male wanting a handout approached my wife and I. Without much of a glance, I muttered “May God be with you,” as I walked over to the car, my wife making her way to the passenger side.
Just as I climbed into the car, I heard a loud whack coming from her direction. Getting out quickly and walking around to the other side, I noticed her admonishing the old man for his rude behavior. With a glare that would melt an iceberg, she told him to respect her space, and that he had no right to get so close and try to touch her with his pleas for a handout.
Looking at me, she let me know she belted him right in the stomach with her formidable purse after he had dared touch her. Looking at this man more closely now, I could not help pitying him. The man seemed old enough to look like my departed grandfather. But yet he had violated the sanctity of a lady.
As my wife started getting into the car, I continued the reprimand and let him know in no uncertain terms that what he did was wrong, wrong, and wrong. Regardless of reason or age, he had no right to touch my wife. By doing that, he deserved the belting she dished out. The sanctity of a woman is held in very high esteem in our culture, and all perpetrators should be made to suffer.
Privately, I pitied this harmless looking elderly man as he shuffled away from this miniature mayhem that was thrust so suddenly upon us, the reality of which disturbed the revelry we had been indulging in just moments before. But whatever his intentions, he had committed the cardinal sin of touching.
Once inside the car, we discussed this incident, with my wife insistent that he was not as old as he appeared to be, and that panhandlers today were becoming very adept in the art of disguise to elicit pity and generous alms from the unsuspecting. We agreed that he had done something unquestionably wrong and that he deserved what he got and maybe more.
A few weeks later, my son and I were leaving a funeral wake for a relative when I was approached by a gentleman who called out to me by my first name and offered his condolences. While I did not recognize him, and I have a tendency to sometimes forget faces, I accepted his commiserations. No sooner had I done that, he pulled out some documents from his pocket and began a sob story about mounting medical bills and unpaid debts. Holding on to my arm, he begged for some help.
Coming out of a funeral wake, and taken aback by this brazen switch in tactics, I muttered the customary reply as my son and I walked over to where my car was parked. He followed us, pestering me for some generosity. Turning around and facing him, I let him know that I had no money on me, and said I had not even brought my wallet with me. My son, perhaps too young and naïve to understand blurted out, “But Baba, you have it with you. I saw you take it when you left home.”
“Let’s go son,” was my icy reply as I took a tight grip of his hand and kept going.
But I was not left alone. This man, taking advantage of the solemnity of the occasion, kept pestering us even as we were getting into the car. Getting bolder, he tried to hold the door open in which my son got in so as to plead his case. A few more such alm seekers, who would have gladly jumped in the back seat of the car if allowed to, compounded this aggravating situation.
With a wrestle of hands, I finally slammed the car door shut on my son’s side and we drove off. In the rear view mirror, I could see this horde of panhandlers casing out their next unsuspecting victim.
Other incidents related by friends and relatives confirm the disturbing and rising trend of physical tactics employed by these actor-beggars. And while the authorities are trying to curb this social nuisance, we as people should not be taken in by their pleas. There are enough legitimate and charitable institutions to help those in need. Indulging them just makes them more vociferous and determined when turned down.
And so long as our borders are freely open to those whose stated intent is to perform their religious duties at the holy shrines, but whose agendas may actually be to take advantage of our generosity, I see no end to this menace.
