Indibar Ghosh
[A student of Standard XI (Science)]

I am sure that all of you come across beggars almost daily, isn’t it? In fact, in a poor country like India, beggars are found at almost everywhere, from market place to mandir-masjid. But what about developed countries? Have you ever heard of beggars begging there? More precisely, have you ever come across with any white skinned beggars at any time of your life? The answer, in most of your cases, will be no. Because, none of us normally imagines about their existences there.

I had an opportunity to visit some of the European countries. There I had come across many beggars. In European countries, the beggars are apparently look more sophisticated. They are usually not like Indian beggars who normally are ragged & shabby. Moreover, besides begging, many of the European beggars exhibit their talents to earn their livings.

In London, while coming out from Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, I came across an old man sitting beside the gate. It was chilly and drizzling evening. Biting cold was making him to shiver. His clothes were not enough. He badly needed something to warm up. I looked for a typical Indian similarity in him but his blonde skin made him different. Our tour leader offered him a cup of hot cappuccino coffee. The beggar acknowledged the alms by bowing down his head.

Our next visit was at Brussels in Belgium. There was a square named ‘Grand Place’. At its entrance, a middle-aged man was playing western music on his bugle. On seeing us, he started playing Hindi songs. Tunes of his bugle still sounds in my ear. At a little distance away, inside the square, there was a golden colored statue of an old time eminent beggar. Near to it, a group of cute looking children, with whitish skin and golden hair, were asking for donations. At a glance, looking at them, nobody would consider them as beggars. They were so chubby, that I could not resist myself without giving some coins to them. There was another beggar dressed like a statue, standing in front of showroom. His dress attracted everyone. We took a photograph with him as a momento.

In our way from Amsterdam to Koln (Cologne), we came across some peculiar characters at Den-hog beach. When we saw them for the first time, we thought that they might be mad persons. However after careful observations, we understood that they were beggars trying hard to earn their livings. They were speaking some unknown language. Their dresses resembled them with Indian chameleons.

Germany was our next destination. When we reached Koln (Cologne), it was a misty chilly morning. Its bounteous prosperity and tantalizing cleanliness had made us dumbfounded. But there too we found beggar. She was a lady with a baby in her lap. She was profusely begging to feed her kid. When one of our tour-mate donated her a coin of 2 Irose (Euros), a smile of happiness could be seen on her face.

The prosperity and cleanliness of France attracted us so much that it was difficult for us to believe that there could be beggars in France. However, in Paris, near Eiffel Tower, we came across a couple of urchins. They were trying to get our attention. We mistook them as hawkers. But they were beggars, mostly migrated Asians.

At Innsbruck in Austria, we were astonished to see a well-dressed handsome young-man entertaining the crowd with his jokes. He was very tall and had a well-built body. The man made us to laugh so much that our stomach started aching and water started coming out from our eyes. All of us thought that he would be from a well to do family. But, the man turned out to be beggar. His ability of making others to chuckle made us to offer some Irose (Euro) to him.

In Italy, we had extremely different experience. In Roma (Rome), we were surprised to see a well-dressed beautiful lady, standing beside a lamppost, asking for alms to feed her pet dog. The dog was very cute and surly of a high-class breed. Nobody at a glance, looking at her face, would believe that she could be a beggar because it was hard to believe for any common man that a person who can afford to keep such an expensive dog could be a beggar. In Venezia (Venice) we had seen beggars who were collecting money by showing juggling. They were never the less, resembling to our street jugglers.

In short, our experiences with European beggars were different but nostalgic. They were, in general, decent, well-dressed and well off than their Indian counter parts. Till today, I failed to understand in spite of their wealthiness what intended them to beg.