THE BEGGAR GIRL

THE BEGGAR GIRL



As I stood by the bus stop I was lost in thoughts like every day! I could see the usual people like me gathering at the bus stop at 8 am for work. I could see people and the stories of their lives; which they carried around with them all the time but something was different today! I hadn’t seen the child since 3 days and some scary feeling was coming over me!. As I stood there I began wondering about the child.



My life had revolved around this bus stop since the last 3 years. I would come here daily in the morning and I had begun relating to most of the people who used to be a part of the bus stop daily!. I knew who works where, who stands where; as if this had become a usual part of my routine!.



I even knew about the other people!.  There was an old man I‘d see daily walking across the corner of the street trying to sell coconut milk. Then there was this group of beggar children and amongst these kids I used to see her! She was a very cute pathan child almost 8 years old, with beautiful blue eyes, wearing haggard dirty clothes daily, begging for money!. Sometimes the kids would have wipers in their hands and would run after every car that stopped by at the bus stop signal and they would race amongst themselves to see who wipes the car window first and then they would ask for money for cleaning the window glass of the car!. Some people would hand out money; some would shout saying they don’t want their front window cleaned!. The kids would clean anyways and the car would just sweep away without giving the kids any penny!. But somehow I would see that the kids were happy!. They would play around whenever they got time or they got tired of begging. They were kids of course, basically of Pathan origin I believe.



“They must have been smuggled here to Karachi from Afghanistan” , an old lady who was also a regular member of the bus stop clan told me. I used to pity the kids, especially I would pity that sweet little beggar girl a lot!. She would smile around even when she was asked by her masters to look her most pathetic while begging but she had something extra ordinary about herself!. She had this cute sparkle in her eyes as if she is about to do something mischievous right away but she wouldn’t! She had this beautiful glare around her! I would worry for her at times. I didn’t want her to spend her whole life begging. “She is so beautiful right now I wonder how beautiful she will get once she goes into her teens, I hope they don’t try to use her for some wrong purpose” I’d worry.



When all of the other kids would be busy playing my eyes would search for this child and I would find her busy in trying to go through an old worn out book someone must have given her sometime! From that day I got to know that the child wanted to study!. The very next day in the morning I had bought a few books with me; books which dealt with the very basic ABC and ALIF Bey Pey (The ABC of URDU). Then there was this other book which dealt with shapes and numbers. As soon as I reached the bus stop I saw that she was busy playing around with the other kids!. I reached up to her and tried calling her “ beta idher aao” (“dear child come here” in Urdu). And she hid behind another kid! She had gotten scared probably, then after a little pause she peeped behind the shoulder of the other child and I smiled at her!. Shyly she stepped forward, I sat on the ground and shook out the three books at her and in an instant her whole face lit up with happiness and excitement. “ mere leay?” (“is it for me?” in Urdu), she asked and I nodded yes. She took the books from my hands in excitement and began going through the pages!. I could see her eyes shine like diamonds in the light of the morning sun. She looked up at me with a gesture of gratitude in her eyes. Then I asked if she wanted to study and she said yes!.



Life had given me a beautiful chance of doing good for someone and I had to avail this chance! Anyways I had enough time in my life being all lonely! Maybe by doing this I could forget about the losses I had in my life. Three years had passed and I could still make out each and every memory of the past as if it had happened yesterday! I also had a beautiful family; a husband and a six year old little daughter who was the most precious thing in my life!



We were going on the highway one day when the car hit a huge truck which was going the wrong way! The only survivor of the accident was ME! How badly I wanted to end my life too that day but…maybe fate cannot be changed and I had to live on! I had to survive the pain all alone! I moved away to another city. I somehow cut off from all of the contacts from my life! Tough I wasn’t driving that day when the accident had happened but somehow the guilt of surviving alone without my family was big enough and I just couldn’t take it! I had to leave all of my surroundings in order to move on in life and even when I did try to move on; everything around me would remind me of my family! Here at the bus stop I would see lovers going by, I would see happy families; mothers yelling at their kids going by; wife and husband having an argument and I would feel how lucky they all were and I would feel so empty inside and it was this when I’d look up at the beggar child and I could feel that she was also empty inside with no parents, no home and I could relate so much to her!. Though I had a home but I never felt like going there. I could see my daughter in her and somehow today when I made a plan to teach her I felt so contented!



From now on every day after work; at around 6 pm I would sit at the bus stop with the child and would teach her. I could see that she was very intelligent! “A for Apple, B for Ball, C for Cat, Alif for aam (mango in urdu) Bey for Bakri (goat) Pey for pauda ( Plant)” she had begun memorizing herself in just one week!. I was really happy! Just when I felt things were going good in my life one day she came up to me and said that she would not come to study because her master had beaten her up as these days she was bringing home less money as she would spend half of her day studying! I just couldn’t stand this! I wanted this child to study; I wanted her to have a good future for her life! I did not want her to keep on begging like this!. I just made up my mind that I would take the child home!



The next day early morning I went up to the child and whispered in her ear “ I am going to take you home dear with me and make you my daughter, will you come with me?”

She looked up to me with some confusion in her eyes “Will my master allow me to do so?”



“We are not going to ask your master dear, we will just go…..let me come back from work today and then we will go away, will you come with me?”  she said yes and that she would anxiously wait for my return!.



When I reached my office my eyes kept ticking every now and then to the clock! I wanted to do some good before it was too late! As soon as the watch struck 5 30 I left the office premises, sat in the bus and waited for my bus stop! As soon as I reached there I looked all over for her but I just couldn’t see her! I asked one of the other beggar children if they had seen the young pathan girl with those blue eyes? But they did not seem to remember, or maybe they did not want to answer!



Two more days passed like this and there was no sight of her! I would stand there on the bus stop with despair, hoping to see a glimpse of her or of at least hearing from her! I hoped she had gone back to her country somehow! At least there she would be safe from the evil clutches of her master! Somewhere inside her I had seen a rebellious child and I hoped she had done nothing rebellious in front of her master as to anger him!



But somehow I had a bad feeling! Somehow somewhere inside myself I was shivering at a few thoughts! I hoped all my worries would be wrong. I did not want that child to grow up as a beggar and maybe my wish was about to be fulfilled!



The very next day I took out the newspaper from my office desk and just froze on reading the front headline:



“A YOUNG PATHAN BEGGAR GIRL FOUND DEAD BY THE ROADSIDE GUTTERS, POLICE WILL TAKE CARE OF THE BODY AFTER GOING THROUGH THE NECESSARY INVESTIGATIONS”



She would never grow up to be a beggar anymore!!!.





Word Count: 1653 words in total.