The One rupee coin

-

Yesterday when I was waiting at the famous SRP tools junction there was a group of transgenders who were asking for alms. I usually look away as they can be a little pushy and it can be quite uncomfortable in trains but this time I saw one person who approached my car asking for alms. I picked out a 10 rupee note and gave it to the person, the person asked me for a 1 rupee coin. I was confused and said I did not have coins.

The person asked the others in the group if they had a rupee to give me. I was confused even more when the person said that the rupee is for me. Thoroughly puzzled I found a coin which I handed over. This person bit the coin almost like athletes bite their medals these days and asked to see my wallet.  Then the person put the coin in my wallet and said do not spend this and walked away with a blessing that I should live well.

This short interaction disturbed me:
-          These people are outcasts and not respected yet they came asking for alms without any nuisance
-          They received money and they wanted to give something in return, though I am still not sure about biting it
-          Since I could not initially find a coin they were ready to give me one of their coins
-          They walked away with a blessing which somehow appeared to be heart felt.

These people will not be accepted into the mainstream, surely there can be something that they can do besides asking for alms?
What is the significance of this one rupee coin? Why did they bite it?
Will I still react with revulsion or fear or disgust when I see these people again?
Would I have had the same dignity with which they carried themselves if I was also not an ordinary person?




Comments

  1. Umesh Tarsariya1:43 pm

    Nice experience..
    Regards,
    Umeshkumar Tarsariya.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Divya N8:21 pm

    This is very interesting and I have not come across this before. I read somewhere on that a coin blessed by a trans person can attract money but I do not think that it is true

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your take on this?

Popular posts from this blog

Bad donkey, small wall.

-
Image
This was a crude translation of a proverb that comedian Karunas (as pointed out by Chriz ) made famous in one movie. The Tamil original runs thus, “Kazhutha ketta, kutti suvaru” so you have the translation. I heard that line somewhere and I wondered especially having heard the translation as to what could have been the origin of the proverb. Any ideas? PS: I Googled it and did find something.
Read more

Memories of PTC bus journeys!

-
Image
MTC bus today! As I was turning into Haddows road today a MTC bus whizzed by nearly missing a few people on the road as is the norm. Just when I was about to curse the bus and its driver and everybody connected to it, my mind drifted back to the days gone by when I used to travel by these buses. The more my mind drifted, more instances that have been deeply etched in the confines of my memory came out like a mental slideshow. It is amazing how at the most unexpected moments lost thoughts surface and make even poor memory people like me feel good about us. Coming back to the post I thought I will put together a few memorable ones for the record. It was in the days of khaki shorts and white shirts, the old uniform of Dominic Savio Preparatory school (I’m told it has graduated to a matriculation now!) and its bigger sibling St. Bede’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School (100 years now, dear school of our hearts). School was a two stop bus ride from home if you got onto a white board bus ...
Read more

Its a colour full life!!!

-
Image
                                 (image courtesy Google Images )  During a pre-employment medical I learned that of the 256K colours in my mobile I can see but very few. It is official; I’m a little colour blind. No I don’t see the world in black, white and shades of grey but if you were to bring me a RmKV multi-colour sari and ask me what are the colours I will call out red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, white, black, grey, pink and brown. Maybe I may get a few more but that’s all, with all due respect to the master weavers of RmKV. The fact of the matter is I cannot discern between shades of the same colour and that makes life simple! I see a red as red irrespective of whether it is called blood orange, safety cone or tomato. To me it’s red. PERIOD. Do you know what a banker’s lamp is? I didn’t till I happened to see it in the shade card . Horror of horrors, it is a green. Even...
Read more