Just writing

It's a crazy world out there!

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Blind man selling peanuts

I was strolling down one of Chembur's main roads, and looking for an economical place to have my dinner. Across the road I saw this man selling peanuts. I went to him and told him to give me a "chota wala". I was looking somewhere else when I asked him the order. But when I turned towards him I realised that he was blind. When I asked me "kitne ka", he said " chota wala bola tha na, to ek rupaye ka hai". I handed over his 1 rupee. Moving just 10 steps ahead, I saw another man, sitting in a corner. He was tying lots of cloth strips on his hands and feet to fake that he had some disease or that he was handicapped. He was begging.

The man who was begging would be proably earning more than he blind man selling peanuts. It's only the question of what he get satisfaction in and what gives him self-respect.

Is this not a choice (between better money and more satisfaction) that one has to make at each level of one's life?