Begging using the Name of God!!!!

Beggars Beggars Beggars wherever you go, you could find this population nearly equal to the working population(working here i mean not only the people who work hard at office for their family but also the wonderful souls who work at home)...here i am definetely not trying to make fun of people who have been thrown out of their own houses due to illness or age by heartless people...this note is only about people who make use of the word BEG or YASAKAM to escape from working...they find begging easier than working and sweating be it any weather to meet their day-today needs...

Of late,i find these people are quite disturbing during the weekends(the 2 lovely days i get to spend with my family and DD)..maybe these people turn up during the weekdays too,thankfully i would be at office...but came to know from their neighbourhood that these people trouble more during the weekends..these clever people know when people will be at home and also know it is only during the weekends they would spend time with family and would never like beggars crying at their doorsteps..what an :idea...right from morning 10 till eve 4 ,you can see different ways used by people to grab the hard earned money from us...

* There are few who show their(or maybe god knows whose) newborn to get not only money(not coins but demand double digit) but food as well as clothes(here clothes need to be not too old or torn,they check them)...
* Few show a chit which says they are dumb,deaf,blind what not and grab the money...(here also i am not making fun of real diabled people but who use their names for money)
* Last but not the least,indirect begging .. actually these people are not called beggars...these people dont wear shabby clothes,dont cry,they have a printed book and pen in hand and demand money...In tamil we say "Adigara Pichai"...i find these people competing their might with the other two types of beggars mentioned above...you cant shoo away these people easily..more prominent during festivals..and in a country like india where its festivals almost the entire year,these people might not have these collections only for maybe a month or two..it is only because of these people's help,we get to know which festival is approaching next..thanks to them.:bonk.the moment your calling bell rings and before even you could open the door,you would be given a paper with some information and would be asked for your name and address(or even your phone number) of course along with a two or a three digit currency...sometimes it can be accompanied by a pink or yellow chit ...guess you have identified the person whom i am talking about...yes these are the group of 5-6 people who would appear even a month before the ganapathi festival or navrathri and say "we have kept an idol of ganapathi in this lane of that street and so give donation"..or "on the occasion of navrathri,we are giving free food to the needy..so donate liberally"...it is not just once or twice they come,maybe the same person might not come,he might send his friend...in return they would give you a so called receipt with your name..what a heck...what are we going to do with that,will we get any IT claim for it??...
it so happened that this year,when a group of people demanded money for vinayagaChaturthi,i asked them for the place where they have kept the idol,they said some street for which i said"there is no idol there..i saw today"...for which he replied "yeah it is there,cant you see"..donno how a big idol can disappear especially when i see...maybe lord vinayaga doesn't want to give me darshan...:spin and there was another set who came last year and asked for my DH's name and demanded money more than Rs 50...he said you can give 50,100,500 as per your wish for lord ganesha....i gave them a Rs 10 note and he gave me a "huh...is this what you can give..idiot..did we come all this way to get this tiny amount from you" look... and i told my DH's name..he took the money,gave a huh smile ,turned and went away without even giving me the so called receipt...what nonsense..then i understood that he had some algorithm designed inside

If (money>=50)
Return receipt and say "Thank you"
Else
Give back a bad look,turn back and move...do not hand over the receipt
EndIF

he took my money in fact begged using the almighty's name but feel bad to utter a word "thanks"...

What i ask these people
(1)Are they asking us before keeping the lord's idol or have they ever called us for the celebration which they are going to conduct,after all they expect money fromus right.....in case they have decided that they need to celebrate or do big size pooja for their sake, why do they grab money from others???...are they having fun with our hard earned money...more than grabbing our money,they are including our name while spoiling the environment..(when they destroy the idol)
(2) Why cant they go,especially young people,ask in each and every house to do some household job like cleaning,washing,taking care of kids....there are so many people(especially working couples) who want help and are ready to give any amount for help...just like they go each and every house begging inspite of getting scoldings unless they get what they required ,they dont move an inch from that house,why cant they go asking for work in a similar way...why is that they want to get money and food without working even 5 minutes....if you need money,you have to work...there is no gain without pain...
(3) when they ask for something,they need to take what is being offered,they cant demand the items they want from us...

There are many incidents which we have heard like people selling the old clothes/food taken from us and getting money,selling kids for begging and even the beggars having their own bank account and flats (this was a information from a mail which was getting circulated few months back)...inspite of hearing these,we all keep giving money either by feeling pity on them or to just move them away from our site

The following are the few steps that i feel we could take to prevent people begging
** In case you see some old people begging or lying without any help on the road,try calling some helping/old age homes and ask for help..same can be done for orphan kids...this way we could atleast stop few culprits who use these people to get money
** Stop giving money to these decent beggars who demand money in the name of GOd...ask them politely for what are they asking and reply that you are not interested in giving them and would provide contributions in required by approaching them at their own place and ask for their address...
** Similar ways you can respond back to people who demand money and food in the name of orphanages...ask for the address of orphanages and say would help later...
** in case you wish to provide help,please visit the nearest orphanage or old age homes and help them with whatever you can do and if you can spend some time with them...this would give more personal satisfaction than just sending the clothes and food through people whom we dont know and having a doubt whether these people who deliver the things or use themselves..

i know these suggestions alone might not eradicate BEGGING and stop beggars but atleast we could be sure that we are not personally responsible for making the beggars community stronger by supporting them ,at the same time we could be happy that we are not bringing down our India's pride...

 

Oh yes...i almost forgot