Just
stop at a busy city road signal till it becomes green and your vehicle is
swarmed and stalked by various vendors cum beggars of all ages, of all genders.
Some sell car sunshades and pieces of clothes for cleaning the dashboard,
others flowers, jasmine garlands, bracelets, newspapers and prize bond results
while many sell ball point pens, pencils, and even azaar-bunds (belt for
shalwar/pajama). And there are numerous beggars and beggars in disguise, like
women showing fake medical prescriptions to win sympathies and earn alms. Some
real crippled/handicapped beggars also have their permanent dens on such
intersections and signals. Word is that they were crippled in their childhood
by their masters to grow into more effective and well-earning beggars.
But
the emergence of an eye catching development at these signals in recent years is;
Windshield Cleaner boys and girls. You stop at a red signal on a busy downtown
road, and while in waiting till it turns green you take a peep at a missed call
at cell-phone, suddenly just out of nowhere your windshield gets blurred with a
foam-brush applying detergent on it. Without unrolling the glass you wave at a
boy or girl trying to clean the windshield and yell in anger from inside the
car that windshield was already clean and stop doing it. Unfortunately, within
seconds, the washer boy’s brush had already started removing the detergent with
the thin rubber attached at the other side of brush making the screen look cleaned
and sparkling again. The signal turns amber and you begin moving the car, the
cleaner boy now walks along the side of car expecting cleaning charges from you
that normally range between 5 to 10 rupees; even peanuts for a hired car
driver, let alone car’s owner. Since the boy or a girl cleaned the windscreen
without your consent therefore you prefer to punish them and drive away rudely
without paying them. Now this is a very common sight taking place repeatedly on
each of four roads at an intersection throughout midday till midnight.
The above
scenario depicts a normal behavior one would observe frequently on busy city road
signals on daily basis. Nevertheless, there prevail some extreme situations
too; the driver getting flared up on a cleaner and starts misbehaving with them
using loud foul words, and sometimes trying to hit them too. These cleaner
children, mostly and might be hailing from beggar parents do sometimes turn
reactive. You would overhear them murmuring and cursing these rich car owners
like; shame, you can’t afford a labor of 10 rupees, cruelty with poor, and alike.
I too, sometimes fall prey to misdemeanor and rebuke such kids but then never
speed away without having paid them their cleaning charges.
The
other day I stopped my old jeep adjacent to a car at some city intersection
road signal. The cleaner boys and girls ran up to the cars, they thought whose
owners would pay them cleaning charges, carrying dirty old mineral/soft drink
bottles filled with liquid detergent in one hand and small windscreen cleaning
brushes in other. A boy started applying detergent with foam on windshield in
spite of resistance and protest from the car driver. The gentleman looked
perturbed but still asked his wife sitting along with him in the vehicle to
look into her clutch some coins to pay the cleaner. She started searching
desperately but it looked as if she failed to find them. In the meanwhile the
signal turns Green from Amber and vehicles behind this particular car start
blowing/honking horns to move. Finding the scene interesting and in a bid to
help resolve this petty matter I shout at the cleaner, while moving my jeep
slowly, and show him a 10-Rupee Note for his cleaning services rendered to the
car. The boy is perplexed at my offer but still runs to grab it while I watch in
amusement the stunned family in the car.
Without
feeling myself a generous fellow, I tried to perform similar so-called ‘feat’
on other occasions too but due to traffic rush, chaos and noise at
intersections I failed to do so. Hope, someone gets inspiration from reading
this piece and repeats it.
