Pushpa!

I come from a land where most are below the poverty line. I have seen a world that no one else here can probably imagine of. I have seen people who have starved to death. I have seen a land where people have to beg for money. I have seen how people work in sweat shops for as minimum as $1 a day and they work for 10 hours straight or more. Its heart breaking and it just makes me wonder what I am doing here. We spend exorbitant amount of money on good food and then complain about it. We spend thousands of dollars on clothes and then throw them away. Do you know where these designer clothes are made, in sweat shops, in slums. The amount of money you spend on jacket is the money a person earns in a month which is not even enough to buy them three meals a day.
When I was India, I felt for these people everyday but there was hardly much I could do for them. There were these young boys and girls who use to beg for money everyday at the same traffic light. One of the girls name was Pushpa. She was a beautiful 8 years old girl who would clean my windshield everyday for whatever I gave her in return. I grew more and more attached to her and I saw her everyday for three years. One day I didn't see her, I didn't think of it much. The next day no show either. I was surprised that I had not seen her for four days. After four day I saw her and this perfectly healthy beautiful girl had lost one of her arm. I could see through the dirty bandages her wounds were still not healed. I guess for the first time I decided to bunk college to spend some time with her. I had to find out what happened. She was surprised that I wanted to spend time with her. I asked her to hop into the car and so she did hesitantly. I thought I would take her some place to eat. I decided to take her to the nearest Mc Donald's. On our way, I asked her what happened to her arm. She very innocently and as matter of fact told me that because she is not earning enough money through begging her master cut her arm. When I asked her if anaesthesia was used, she told me she didn't know what anaesthesia was and all she had was a rag of cloth to put between her teeth. I was in tears, I still think about it and shudder what kind of man would do this to an 8 year old girl. I could not believe it even though its not an uncommon practice in India. I tried to be strong in front of this little girls who now was playing with the dolls on the dashboard. There was nothing I could have said to her to make her feel better nothing to take her pain away. Nothing.

When we reached Mc Donald's she felt shy and hid behind me. I asked her what she wanted to eat, she didn't know what food we get there so I ordered her a happy meal where she got a small toy as well. She and I sat in a corner, uncomfortably she chewed her food and looked outside the window. We didn't say anything. In the mean time a manager came up to me and very politely asked me to leave. I asked him why and he said that they can't have children like them come in, as it will effect the reputation of the restaurant. Obviously, it ended up in a huge argument and I refused to budge an inch warning them that I would sue them, they didn't argue much.

After Pushpa finished her meal, I asked her what she wanted to do, she shrugged her shoulders. I decided to take her to the zoo, her eyes lit up at the site of animals that she had never seen before and probably will never see again. Zoo trip was fun, but I felt I haven't done enough for her yet, I took her shopping and bought her a dress and some shoes. She picked a very gaudy dress but what the hell she liked it so why not. The one thing that kept bothering me the whole day was her dirty dressing, so I took her to the hospital where the doctor changed the dressing. He asked me why I was doing it and I told him I didn't know. He didn't charge me anything for it. It was getting late and I had to go home so I left her where I picked her up from, kissed her goodbye and left. The whole while I was choking up and tears pooled my eyes. She didn't thank me in words but her smile and her eyes said it all. I saw her everyday she never took any money from me again no matter how much I persisted.

I wish I could describe how I felt afterwards but I can't. I wish I had the words that would do justice to my feelings or the whole situation but there aren't any.