The One legged Mendicant

'Endrendrum punnagai, Mudiv illa punnagai... dheem dheem thanana dheem thanana vaaname yellaiyo...' - I was humming this beautiful song from Alaipayuthey as I was cruising along in my land cruiser with my sweet heart on the magnificent roads of Chennai. The destination: Saravana Bhavan - a gourmets delight.

Yah, dreams are always great. Probably I should dream even better the next time. Coming back to earth, i was actually driving my TVS victor on the rickety (but better than Bangalore) roads of Chennai to Saravana Bhavan in the scorching sun for my lunch. Saravana Bhavan is not exactly a gourmets delight, but it does offer tasty and healthy food at middle class affordable rates. I was parking my bike on the road when I saw three people leaving the hotel. The first two had their bikes parked to the left of where I was parking my bike and the third had her scooty parked to my right. The third being a beautiful lass was naturally the focus of my attention.

At this moment, in came this one legged mendicant and asked the first guy for alms. He kind of acted as if this 70 odd mendicant did not exist and didnt even bother to say no. This pissed me off a bit. But of course, you cant quite blame that guy. When you are constantly looking at such people wherever you go, your senses are numbed and you stop feeling for them. After spending some time standing in front of him, the mendicant moved on to the second person. This was a pot bellied middle aged man who promptly gave him something and left the place. The mendicant thanked him before he left.

Me being a kind hearted, soft natured, good souled Samaritan along the lines of Buddha, Jesus and the Mahatma decided to give something to this mendicant. Of course I never encourage begging and have prevented many friends of mine from giving money to beggars but I make an exception when the concerned person is very old. So, I was actually waiting for this chap to come over to me and ask me so that I can give him something and display my generosity to the world. But, much to my consternation he simply crossed me without bothering to even look at me once and went straight to the lass who merily giggling into her nokia 3310. Somehow this affected me. I was not able to fathom why a beggar wouldnt want to get money from me. Do I look like a pathetic miser? With these thoughts I went into the hotel.

The aroma of the food made me forget this and I happily devoured the food. After a sumptuous meal, I walked out of Saravana Bhavan. By this time, I had completely forgotten the mendicant and the whole of my brain was trying to analyze that core dumped issue that was giving me sleepless nights at work. But the moment I came out of the hotel, I saw this mendicant and the core dumped issue vanished from my brain. I tried hard not to look at him or think about him and made a brisk walk towards my bike but before I could start my bike and leave the place he came to me and asked me to give him some money in his own inimitable style. I was totally nonplussed now. Did that meal from Saravana Bhavan make me loose that Uncle Scrooge looks. I couldnt understand. I just gave him 1 rupee and left that place. A lot of the bikes there were parked in a haphazard fashion. Cursing the people who had parked their bikes like that on the road, I slowly removed my bike out of that mess. But by this time, my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I wanted to know why he ignored me the first time and then asked me the second time. Was it just an act of a mad old man or did he have some reason for doing so. I wanted to know that. So I called him and asked him to come near me.

Myself: "Ungai kitta oru kelvi. Yaaru kittelam kaasu kepeenga"

Mendicant: "Ellar kittaiyum kepen sami. Yaaru kudupanga yaaru kuduka mattanganu eppudi theriyum"

Myself: "Seri. Appudina yen naan vantha pothu yen kitta kekale aana veliya pogum pothu kaeteenga. Hotel Security yethavathu sonnara"

Mendicant: "Illainga sami. pasiyoda varavanga kitta ketta kuduka maatanga. nalla vayirara saapitutu varavanga kitte ketta kudupanga. athaan"

Myself: ???????????????????

Myself: "Inthanga". and I gave him another 5 rupee coin.

Mendicant: "Sami, athaan yerkanave kuduthuteengale"

Myself: "Ithu tuition fees"

PS:

1.) I do think there is a small lesson here for all budding marketing people. For some this might be very obvious. But for people like me, who dont have an aptitude for marketing, this may provide some valuable lessons.

2.) I am no linguist and my literary skils are not something to be proud about though I can throw around a GRE word or two here and there. So please do bear with any grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Id be happy if you were to take the trouble of pointing out any mistakes that you think need to be corrected. It will help me in improving my writing skills.