Chapter 2: Part 2 Those who are your beggars

"Yes I am an expert. I will not help any human being all my life. I was humiliated by human beings.... It was my good luck that the business started, otherwise I would have starved to death."

"But what is the story?" I asked curiously.

"Here is the story." He coughed a little and smiled before speaking. "I used to work in the social welfare department many years ago. At that time I used to think why not human beings be served and I will be compensated for doing so. What could be better than this? Those days, the government has set up "beggar homes" in different cities to eradicate the scourge of begging from society. There was land with these houses and we used to bring the poor people of the city there so that they could work for themselves and earn a better and right livelihood. We would catch the beggars and brought them there with great difficulty but they would run away the next morning. I was also in charge of one of the beggar homes. One day the in-charge of our department visited my beggar home and since there was no beggar there. I got reprimanded so much and was told is this how you are running a beggar home, there is not a single beggar here and he said that he will come here every week and check, and see how many poor people I'll bring.... Otherwise I'll be fired.... Now, sir, I got afraid of losing my job.... On the other hand, none of the beggars was persuaded to go to the beggar home with me. I used to roam in the streets all day long in order to persuade those beggars to have some mercy and come with me. I will give you food and drinks, I'll buy new clothes for you but no sir, there is something wrong with their brains. They earn hundreds and thousands of money daily and spend such a luxurious life. So why would they follow me? At that moment, I thought of a plan.... I started telling them "Today is my father's 40th day death anniversary. The pots are laid, the poor will be fed and alms will be given along. Or that it's my child's aqeeqah today. There will also be food and money for the poor. The poor would agree. I would take him in a taxi and lock him in a beggar's house. When the boss did the inspection, he would become very happy that poor people were seen everywhere.

"So these poor gentlemen did not shout that we have been brought here by force." I asked him.

"Absolutely, they did, and very loudly. But who listens to the beggars? Even so, the poor speak Punjabi and if the master understood Punjabi, won't there be a difference in his mastership."

"I see. So, don't these beggars ever run away from your beggar home?"

"They would run away sometimes.... But I went and completed there count again... And soon, I became an expert in kidnapping those beggars. and after some time, other officers from my department started approaching me for my services because they were facing similar issues as I used to. They couldn't find any beggars and the government was forcing to fill out the beggar homes. And if someone's beggar home wasn't filled, he was fired from his job. So I started supplying beggars to everyone."

"No way", I was shocked to hear that. "How it that possible anyways?"

"It sure is possible and I had been doing it for quite a while.... I used to charge a 100 Rupee per beggar those days and would supply him after receiving the payment...."

"So what were other means for capturing those beggars."

"There were many different ways but the starting point for all of this was greed.... Because what happened was that gradually the local poor people became aware of my tactics and wherever they were called for free food, they would disappear from there. On the contrary, one day when the father of a friend died, he complained that he had offered so many pots of qorma and pulao to the poor and needy, and that the poor or the needy who were told to come and feed themselves, would turn pale, and they would jump up and run. So I began to spread my net to small towns and villages outside the city. That's how my expenses increased."

"And your officers were happy with the outcome."

"Why wouldn't they be? What more could they want? Their files were full of beggar's record, so many beggars were brought in. The city would be cleansed from the curse of beggars and the government would plan out their next step etc etc."

"Ah! Okay! So what was the outcome of this beggar trading?"

"Huh! Outcome, it was awful." He answered while shaking his head. And then kept on rubbing his hands together for some time being sorry while thinking about it.