Beg you pardon?

There is this finding yourself a way to deal with all the begging and the beggars.
Some people completely ignore them. Spoke this morning with a woman who has been here for a month now, fully ignoring all the beggars. And now they leave me alone, she said, they treat me like a local.
I notice that I kind of feel the energy games that the beggers set up. (Don’t forget, they are profis). And I’m learning from it, cause there is constant feedback.
On arriving in Chennai, J gave me some information on how to deal with beggars.
Either ignore them, or give them one or two rupees. (Some will get angry when you give only one rupee). On arrival here, R told me some inside information that he heard on a seminar. There is this one vividly alife happily moving around young beggar, that sounds like a deaf mute, speaking only two words/sounds and who has a nice face, radiant eyes and a nice face and smile and he will touch you in the most loving and tender way. He came to our table that first day. Of him it is said that he makes up to Rs 500 per day, enough to support his whole family. Then there is this elderly lady, that’s supposed to receive $ 40 each month from some American. Apart from that, and there will be much more to know on this subject, there is a variety of personalities pulling your attention in order to make you give them some rupees.
There are so many of them, and it is by now so clear that most of them will eat without me giving them anything, that there is a freedom to behave fully according to the flow of the moment. And in that I can do my research; feel where I’m triggered on remnants of guilt feelings, responsibility, aversion, attraction, shame. One lady showed me her bandaged foot and without thinking I showed her my (my still visibly eczema infected) hands.
“Look, also no good, see?”
At the local chai shop, where I go several times a day, I offer chai to those who come to beg.  Which basically means taking one chai and paying for three.
The danger of a fan club is luring, that’s for sure.
Lately, this vividly young guy approached me at the chai shop and I just answered his enthousiasm with the same, fully from the heart. I kept doing this after he interupted his act for asking. In hte end he almost gave me the finger. Juggling with the jugglers, why not. Now I type this from my notes, I feel that I have to become more sensitive in this game.
Also in the direction of those where I actually cann’t find an act in how they sit there, they are just helpless it seems, and who am I to confront them with that? When a sence of humor fits in okay, but what about the almost deadly serious beggars?
Till now it is fully worth the attempt to not pay with coins, only to receive them back as change and then slide them into the right pocket for give away later. Sometimes that even doesn’t work smoothly, change is so scarce here, that once I was given 2 bananas instead of a 5 rupee coin. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the beggars can sell their coins with a little profit to the local shop owners. After having written this spontaniously, I have checked this with two shopowners and they both say that mostly beggars just exchange their coins, but some ask and sometimes get a small commission fee. Like Rs 205 for a value of 200 Rs in coins.
The experiences with beggars keep coming. Yesterday there was this fully overdressed sadhu, who started to ask the familiar questions: what is your name, which country, camera? Camera? Ah, he want to be paid for taking a picture of him, with or without me  hanging around his neck, have seen that. This time I kept talking and denied any request and in the end I even pushed him gently to get him to walk on. (I was seated high on my
rented iron horse called a bicycle, a heavy but to small one that helps me to spare my
barren foot soles). Next time I’ll harvest a picture from him to illustrate this text.
The man is for sure a beautifull if not a beautified example of a sadhu.

hans