What I will remember the most about India is neither the Taj Mahal in Agra nor the Pink City in Jaipur. The strongest impression was made by the huge numbers of beggars. Armed with colour pencils and little booklets, I tried to convince begging children to go to school and become exactly what they wanted to. Selfhelp, I thought. A woman came to me at the Gandhi memorial site in Delhi. She brought her half naked son and asked me wordlessly for money. I tried to buy her off with colour pencils for her son. She looked at me with disdain. Her eyes telling me she didn't need my good intentions for her son, she needed money. I ended up giving her some rupees.Late night at the train station in Agra a group of children came up to me and made the global sign for 'I am hungry, give me food', signed holding their fingers to their mouths. I think they lived on the platform. No parents were around. They got a smiling lecture along with a few school pencils. One boy handed a pencil back to me, frowning. The tip of one pencil was broken, he complained in mime. My immediate response was 'Well, at least it will give you something worthwhile to do sharpening the pencils'. The mime not working and not getting any money, he first looked at the pencils then at me in wonder, as if saying 'don't these at least come with ketchup?'
'Hello, mister!' Two begging girls followed my every move in Jaipur. At first they just put out their hands to ask for money. Not working, they then brought out a barrel drum and banged it about three times, then pushed me for money. As I was going for the colour pencils and booklets in my bag, they helped themselves - probably weary of the wait. One girl swiftly put her entire arm into my bag and pulled out my hair comb. I had a hard time pulling it back from her. They then accepted my little sales pitch to go to school, the colour pencils and booklets and ran off. Now they at least had items for sale in stead.
At the Attari border, countless young boys were pitching CD roms with photos from the Wagha border show. I didn't really want to buy any, so again I tried to buy them off with colour pencils. One boy received one pencil. After a few minutes he returned, 'One more!' he said, blaming me for being unfair to him. I gave him one more. And I ended up buying a CD rom.
In Delhi three children used the Delhi traffic jams to scan the auto rickshaws for tourists. Two of them banging drums, one girl at about five years old dancing hoola, smiling, and flipping backwards saltos. I didn't even go for the pencils but went straight for the rupees.Maybe I should have sharpened the pencil. Maybe I should have let my hair comb go instead of pencils. Maybe the pencil and booklet approach is useless altogether. It seems to me that I was the one ending up going to school in India. I learned that beggars can be choosers. Should be choosers.