RaviSez

Yesterday night, as I walked out of a grocery store on Devon street – a street in Chicago, well known for Indian grocery stores, Indian restaurants and an Indian atmosphere, I saw something for the first time in my entire stay in the US: an Indian woman begging. With an eight year old girl in tow, this young woman barely looked like somebody who asked money from strangers. She was good-looking, dressed reasonably well, her accent was spiff and one could tell she is not somebody that has immigrated from India recently; she appeared she has been in the States for quite sometime – even grew up here. Curiously, the little girl had a scarf tied across her face, so one could not see her face.
At first, when she approached me, I thought she was looking for directions; turned out she was looking for money. Money to buy food for the little girl, she said. She started explaning that her husband had left her and the kid – living with some other woman now and that there is no food in the house. Soliciting on the streets was not new to me, and I never offered money earlier. I just stood there weighing in, how I could help her when my wife walked out of the store a few minutes later and wondered what was going on. I explained to my wife that this woman was looking for help. My wife immediately suggested to the woman that she should seek help from Apna Ghar – an organization that was close by and provided shelter to distraught women, primarily of Asian origin. . Having done volunteer work for this organization, my wife knew that was the right thing to do rather than walking away after giving a dollar or two. The woman did not seem interested in the idea and was pressing for immediate money. She said she wanted money to go to the nearest grocery store and buy food. My wife kept insisting that she should go to this place and they will assist her. She offered to give her the number, address and such but the woman just turned a deaf ear to all that and there was little we could do to help her and we walked away.