No pity!

This morning while on my way to the office, I came across one of the usual sights….. a women begging at the traffic light with an infant that could barely pass as a human species. My glance caught hers and she walked to me, begging in the most usual tone. I looked at her but nothing moved me to reach out to my purse and give a magnanimous one rupee coin to her. She waited for precisely seven seconds, gave up on me and then started walking towards a red Swift that had just screeched in.

The light turned green and I assumed my ‘journey’ to the office. I had no regrets for not helping a ‘poor woman’. but i did question myself that – what is the threshhold when a person ceases to exist as a human being and becomes just a creature in human form. It applies both for me and the beggar woman, of course the contexts are diametrically opposite.