Tibetan Colony in Delhi - coming to terms with poverty

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It is surreal that I am living in a Tibetan Colony in India. Just the fact that I am in India is surreal. It is cold, dusty and colorful. It is a paradox for a place so bleak in color, especially in the cities, to be so full of it. The lack of natural color, besides the sandy dust that covers everything, is replaced with the rainbow of cloth and paint. But even these things are quickly swallowed by the dust and smog of Delhi.

There is life everywhere along with unimaginable pain and poverty. It is hard to be here. It hurts. It hurts that street kids follow us patting our legs and bringing their hands to their mouths begging for food and money. Not just kids but adults as well. A little girl asked me to buy her candy because she has seen my classmates and in the shops. She moves onto the next person when I ignore her.

I <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ignored her. I literally had to act as if I did not hear her, as if she did not exist. It hurts me to do this and I have become sick of giving excuses and resorting to lying to get away from the beggars. To look them in the eye is to acknowledge that they exist. On the other hand this gives them hope and energy to try harder. Because who can ignore the cries of mothers who need money and food to feed their children, or the lamed and crippled men who scoot at your feet? One day I was shopping in a small shop when a beggar woman with her little baby saw me. She would not enter the shop, but instead stood at the door calling for money to buy food for her child. She stayed trying to make eye contact with me and when she did it renewed her energy. She did not leave until I moved farther into the shop and out of her sight.

I feel so guilty. Here I am shopping and there she is hungry and begging. I want to find a better way to interact with the beggars. I cannot give them money. I do not know where it is going. If the beggars are children the money does not go into their pockets. The same can be said for adults as well. The variables are numerous and if I give them money they will beg in front of Wongdhen House, our hotel we are staying in for the week. I hope to find a way to show these people that I actually see them. To show that someone sees them.

Happy Travels

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