Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Curse of poverty: Digest this


It is an incident that cannot be deleted from my memory easily.
I was with my wife and daughter at the crowded food court of a famous Sharjah mall this weekend. Seated on the next table were three children with buckets of fast food, including chicken, Pepsi and fries.
They chatted and nibbled at the crunchy grub. In a short while, they rose and left, leaving a huge chunk of food scattered all over the table.
It was then that it happened.
A neatly dressed man in full sleeves, properly combed hair and just a newspaper on hand took over that seat.
He did not look anywhere else and quietly started sorting out the food. Leaving the empty covers aside, he picked up the leftover food and without any indicative expression on his face, started munching.
He then gulped the leftover soft drinks and repeatedly shook the chips pocket. There was disappointment there as it turned out to be empty.
The man then rose and headed to the rest room.
In a few minutes, he emerged again, looked casual and disappeared in the mall crowd.
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24 comments:

  1. Ankita November 16, 2011 at 9:45 PM

    oii1 thats strange but then if he was so needy, how come he was so well dressed??

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  2. NRIGirlNovember 16, 2011 at 10:14 PM

    Hard to digest!

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  3. hamaarethoughts.comNovember 17, 2011 at 12:09 AM

    Wow! its very strange... how come?
    a very well looking beggar ...or maybe in need of food ...its really very strange.

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  4. adithyasaravanaNovember 17, 2011 at 5:54 AM

    this gives an heart ache. I don't want to tell what happens here.,
    கல்யான பந்தி முடிந்தத பின் பசியாறும் மக்கள் உண்டு இங்கே

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  5. chitraNovember 17, 2011 at 7:53 AM

    My goodness....Hearing this kind for the first time...

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  6. ShobhaNovember 17, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    This is really very touching...

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  7. SEPONovember 17, 2011 at 9:20 AM

    Have witnessed such a scene many a times here in India. little children sorting dustbins with dogs by there sides!!

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  8. SandhyaNovember 17, 2011 at 9:41 AM

    This is very unusual! I thought he might collect all the left overs for his or stray dogs...not joking. People do that, I have heard.

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  9. MadhulikaNovember 17, 2011 at 3:37 PM

    ooohhh.. its really strange..
    May be he was in need...

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  10. Felicity Grace TerryNovember 17, 2011 at 4:49 PM

    Yes, poverty comes in my guises.

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  11. ThinkingNovember 17, 2011 at 8:59 PM

    hmmmm....its very sad....

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  12. Vijay MenonNovember 17, 2011 at 9:18 PM

    That's rather unusual but maybe he had his reasons- maybe he couldn't stand the thought of wasting food or maybe he didn't possess enough to feed himself or....

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  13. Kavita SahariaNovember 18, 2011 at 6:42 AM

    Touching .

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  14. AnonymousNovember 18, 2011 at 8:36 AM

    strange incident...

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  15. ashokNovember 18, 2011 at 12:25 PM

    that's shocking indeed...

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  16. AnonymousNovember 18, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    God, thats difficult to digest. But I can sees it happening. Malls are not just for the rich and good, they can be for the poor and dangerous too.

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  17. SATYA LAKSHMINovember 18, 2011 at 8:07 PM

    Fate.

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  18. TomzNovember 18, 2011 at 10:45 PM

    I am speechless

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  19. Harish P INovember 19, 2011 at 11:07 AM

    Hm.. Disturbing incident. Shows the acute difference existing in society, even seemingly rich ones, between different classes.

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  20. BK Chowla,November 19, 2011 at 5:51 PM

    I can't even imagine this happening in reality.

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  21. Onkar kediaNovember 20, 2011 at 8:40 AM

    What an incident. I have never heard of anything like this.

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  22. Anupama K. MazumderNovember 20, 2011 at 3:18 PM

    Very moving narration!

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  23. It's A Yoga ThangNovember 21, 2011 at 2:23 AM

    Thank you for sharing this. How blessed we come to realize we are when see something like this. It is at these times we can also see what we take for granted.

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  24. AnonymousDecember 3, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    I hate kids who are not well taught about table manners or strange eating habits....above incident is really curse

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