Compassion

I was having lunch with my colleague and another friend at Sri Petaling last Friday. It was a typical mamak shop, crowded, sweaty, oily and congested with pungent smell of spices and curry. Anyway, while i'm happily eating my briyanni rice, suddenly i felt someone approached me from the sideway. I turned and saw this beggar, a very old man with filthy clothes, holding a cane on one hand and a cup on another asking for money.

To be frank, i usually dont give money to beggar, in my definition, its a crime to give to a person of right age, with no apparent mental in capabilities. But for some reason, i have a soft spot for those old ones/kids. Whenever i look at them, the picture of loneliness and unwanted sprung up my mind.

When i was in Jakarta last year, i have to mentally confronted this feeling everytime the taxi stops, whether its in the middle of the traffic jam or infront of the traffic light, there is always someone, some child, persistently knocking on the glass window, extending their hands out. To turn away my eyes from them is one of the cruelest thing i felt i've done. After 3 days of staying in the city, i felt like wanna run away and never return again.

Back to my story, i was searching my purse for small cash to give to the old man, but only to find that the smallest note i have is RM5, without second thought i took it out and put into his can. and thats when my colleague gave me the "i cant believe you have just did that" look. They were shaking their head in disbelief as though i've done something bizarre and outrageous. In order to knock some sense into me, my colleague told me another incident happened in Bangsar quite sometime ago.

In was the same mamak setting and there was this old man who begged for money from table to table. The only difference was that this old man was hunching, it seems like his back was somehow deformed and he was having difficulties in walking around. My colleague's friend felt pity for him and took out a 50 cents and gave to the old man.

Then miracles happened, as soon as the old man received the 50 cents, he straighten his back and walk out of the restaurant like any other normal person. My colleague was utterly speechless, he felt so amused and told his friend that he is Jesus, cuz he healed the hunchback with 50 cents.

Although it sounds rare, but the fact is there are some people who do feel compassionate towards the disabled and poor. But with these kind of incidents actually occuring, i am sure people's heart will soon be hardened. And this is sad, people cannot do good without worrying being cheated. Good qualities such as compassionate and charitable are killed easily in the society we live today, there are no chance for these qualities to be nurtured so that it can bless more people.

This is definitely sad.