Madness

I stopped at the traffic lights. It’d take time for the green light to be back. I looked around and found many beggars getting up from their respective positions to seek alms from vehicle drivers or inmates. I rolled up my windows and drowned myself into the mobile screen. Best way to avoid saying No to the multiple attempts the beggars make for few rupees.

Amazingly organized and coordinated, these beggars. The 5 or 6 of them instantly know which vehicle is allotted to them as option 1/2/3 etc. Each one approaches their option 1 first and then moves onto the other options. I am not sure if they have a revenue share model. The instinct of guilt, which is what makes people give alms, usually hits late. So, success, usually, happens at your option 2/3 whereas option 1 is mostly a denial scenario. Essentially each beggar approaching a particular vehicle driver or inmate is priming him or her to part with some money. Maybe not at the first instance but later. There must be revenue share model in this. Otherwise, it could be inequitable distribution of the spoils and consequent resentment amongst the community.

I noticed someone different today though. The guy did not line up to seek alms. Instead, he kept going around the traffic light pole with one hand tightly grabbing it. I spotted him and got curious. Why is he missing this window of opportunity, I wondered? Among the thousands of vehicles that possibly pass by that traffic signal through the day, maybe about 10% give alms. Out of that 10% most will just give small change while some really guilt ridden give big notes. The most expensive of the cars might pay nothing and the most dilapidated of the two wheelers might give ten rupees. One will never know (though I suspect the beggar community clearly maps out their addressable market space at the very instant the light turns red). Since most of it is chance, why miss it? And what’s this guy up to going around the traffic pole, oblivious to the world, waiting vehicles, disinterested cop and his fellow community members? Is it right of him to derelict his duties? 

When the sun is beating down relentlessly and the heat is scorching, a short wait at the traffic light would feel like years. The guy persisted with his activity though. As if performing a sacred and God bestowed duty, he kept running around the pole with one hand providing the cantilever support. Curiosity got better of me. I rolled down the window to fervently gesture to the guy with a ten rupee note to attract his attention. He caught a quick glance but, ignoring me, continued his run. I realized that he isn’t doing what he is doing to impress people. He was not interested in making money. Whatever he was doing he was doing for his own sake. He did not bother to respond even when I called him out asking him to come and take the money.

The light turned green, and I had to move on. There was no away I could have struck a conversation in all that heat, dust and traffic. Moreover, I already concluded my view of the guy and slotted him under the category of crazy or mad. But is he? He found purpose in running around that pole. Maybe he’d even make some money at the end of the day if some people found his act amusing and left some money at the pole. You know like how they leave money in the box for street side musicians. Maybe he wasn’t mad after all. Each one of us have a pole that we run around – make money, keep busy, feel important and in the process run our lives. The guy seemed like achieving all these too. More importantly, his business doesn’t seem to have any negative impact on environment in any way plus is sure to keep him fit. And in any case, are we not all inhabitants of this large ball that just keeps rotating around itself? In that way the supposedly mad man seemed more aligned with mother earth.

Too many thoughts and too much obfuscation in the mind all because of a simple event I chanced to spot on the roadside. Makes no sense. I have bigger things to do as the next important milestone at work and home is approaching. Have to run around to make sure I meet the expectations for the milestone. No time for madness.

I drove faster towards my destination (from where I’d have to return to my starting point before nightfall)!