Dead man begging

Yesterday we went to Feeding the poor, giving food to the beggars which we do once in a month. We cook delicious, nutritious meals, with tamarind, peanuts and other pulses, pack them and give it to the beggars along with butter milk or water packets. Sometimes we give them boiled egg along with food. 

There are hundreds of beggars in our area who are homeless, unidentified in the Govt. record, They sleep on road sides, pavements, bus stops, railway stations etc. Most of them claim that they are their homes!! Many live on the pavements, under the trees beside the roads. Some even have families. But what we have observed is, the young girls and women will have to face the most tortured nights everyday. So horrifying even to think about it. Among those areas, we've adopted the beggars in and around Railway Station and are feeding them regularly both with physical and regular food once in a month.

So, as usual we went to give the beggars the food. But when we went to a regular spot, we found so many of them sitting beside the road but none came rushing to take away the food as do it normally. We felt silence everywhere, cold sadness on their faces. We got down the auto, went near to them and we found that in the center where they are, was lying a dead body of a young beggar.He was so thin, so pale, so lifeless... There was no mat under him, no garlands or flowers on him, not even a clean cloth to cover him. The man lay there as if he was sleeping, i guess he was happy to leave this place, his familiar people, his hunger, struggle for food, shelter and clothes, the scary cold nights he suffered, the begging mornings he hated, the insults, the bad words, abuse from the people, the empty bowl in the evenings, the revengeful hunger during nights, was no more. I'm sure he was happy now.

In front of him was his bowl with handful of coins but I'm sure they will not be enough even to buy sticks to burn him (as per Hindu ritual), so we dropped in some money. We gave them the food silently and they took it silently, no questions, no eagerness, no talks, no preachings, no, it was not the normal atmosphere.They all knew that this is what will happen to each one of them one day. That will be their story too one day.We stood there for a while, our hearts were so heavy, so painful, we are unable to stand there for long in that Dead Silence. We went to another spot and then another but before going to another spot, our food was over. Many went empty handed some even yelling, we under stand their pain.

Among all these months of feeding the poor, Yesterday was my most remarkable one, i faced the reality of their lives. God, please remember us, to reach more and more helpless people.