Rani

Exactly a decade ago, I met Rani, a mere 5 – 6 years old girl, wearing a torn heavy Jacket with broken chains; walking on the rough dry road barefoot, in red tangled hair, asking and begging for money. That was the very first time I saw her - and I gave her a 5 rupees coin then. I was happy then, for having helped a child with money. She was among the countless beggars who you can still find at the Patna Junction, especially around the Hanuman Mandir. 

The Next time I saw her, she was with a man in his early Twenties, perhaps a family member. I was suddenly enticed by her sweet and innocent gesture. I remember I was at a bakery shop buying some sweets and out of love for the little child, I purchased her a Chandrakala and gave her some money. As soon as I left, consuming the satisfaction of having helped a poor little child, I ought to have examined that the money I had given her was taken away from her. One day as I asked her about her parents and her Family, she ignored me and ran away. The next time as well, on every occasion I posed this question, she would unsurprisingly tend to ignore this question, unwilling to reveal anything about her.

I would see her often, whenever I bypassed the Hanuman Mandir besides the Patna Junction. In course of time, she recognised me well. So, whenever I bypassed, she would automatically come to me looking forward to getting a cookie purchased and also having some money. Gradually, I acknowledged the people who used to accompany her, often a woman, or some older people. This Continued for several years. Gradually, I learned that she didn't own a family and that she must be an Orphan.

At midnights, I would wonder about her small journey as being a beggar. Was she subjected to any ill-marketing or did her parents lose her somewhere? Or was she being kidnapped post her birth and forcefully compelled to beg?

Rani was then a teenager of about 15 - 16 when I had last seen her. I still see the people who used to accompany her but not her. Once I even asked some of them about Rani, but at the very first impulse, they tend to ignore me by rebuking me to just mind my own business, but upon asking for time and again, they told me that she has gone to a relative.

But in some way, I don't trust this story. I feel that she has been subjected to some kind of Human Trafficking or sold to any ill- Market or just that, she has been sold to a brothel or maybe, just maybe that the story was true.

 Even today, when you go to the Patna Junction, especially at the Hanuman Temple, or the Dak Bungalow Crossing, you will come across countless children selling or persuaded to sell Balloons, but somehow you would perceive that the money given to them is not for them. So, it is better to help them with some food and clothes instead of giving them some money.