Beggar Kid

So, I haven't been feeling so hot lately. I've got eczema cropping up all over my hands, these really weird bites that turned into big bubbly sores and to top it off, have developed a sweet grating cough. Today for lunch I decided that I didn't want cafeteria food, nor did I want Chinese food from the awesome cart across the street from the office, what I wanted, was ice cream. I am a firm believer in the fact that ice cream can indeed make anything better- seriously you want to know the answer to world peace? The answer is, ice cream. So as my comrades were working through lunch, I headed to Shipra Mall for you guessed it, ice cream! Located on the second floor of this sparkling air conditioned shrine to all things holy, is Baskin Robbins, or in this case Heaven. I waltz up the stairs already on cloud 9, look at the ice cream sundaes and decide upon the Banana Royal. Two scoops of banana-strawberry ice cream, sliced bananas, strawberries and whip cream. I sit down with my slice of heaven and dig in...5min flat and I'm off to the grocery store for Chocos, and two bars of Dove soap per the request of my comrades and cough drops- but alas, cough drops they do not have. But no worries, I had ice cream- nothing can rain on my parade. Walking out, past Mc Donalds, I see it, their giant McNugget poster. Curses upon their marketing department, capitalizing on my weak American will to reject such foods. Next thing I know, I'm ordering 6 McMysteryMeatNuggets, with ketchup. No, I do not want BBQ Sauce because it tastes weird here and no I do not want honey mustard because it looks like...well you don't want to know what memories the sight of it conjures up, they're not good...all I want is ketchup- baffled by my desire for just ketchup, they give me one packet and I'm on my marry way back to my cube. The world is mine! As I'm walking out the front of the mall past the rickshaw wallahs calling to me, I decide once again to give into my inner fattie and take a bike rickshaw for Rs10 back to the office- it's a lot faster and lets face it, in this heat getting back inside asap is a general priority. I point across the freeway to the giant building that I work in and tell the driver Rs.10? He taps the seat and I hope in. As I hope in, the beggar children begin their descent upon me. But it is too late, we are on our merry way, free of the sad sight of children tugging on my clothes...until, one of them starts chasing the rickshaw. He runs behind it shouting at me words that I do not know, as he is running along side us he grabs the cart thing I'm sitting in. The driver swerves to try and knock him away, but this kid is persistant- a quality that I under normal circumstance admire in people- he keeps on running, shouting at me. He's running and shouting until it comes down to him running head on into a very tall, well built gentleman, that looks at me, looks at the kid and then arms folded across his chest gives the kid the you leave her alone face and just like that in a matter of seconds we are once again zipping down the street; mean while my head spinning with what just took place. One second I am on top of the world buzzing on an ice cream coma, on my way back to my AC cube to listen to music and do research while eating my nuggets, but now, I have just witnessed something that I have never seen before. I have gotten use to people begging and tugging on me, it is a sad fact of life here, but this, this 8year old kid running after me as if I was the last boat from a ship going down, was altogether different. My head still doesn't know what to make of it. Do I feel like a terrible person for zipping by, do I just accept it as one of those things that happens here that you get use to? Even now my head is spinning- I don't know what to make of it. Perhaps a kid running after me begging for money isn't a big deal but after dropping more rupees in the last 30 minutes than he probably gets in a week or two, I don't know how to feel. So thanks beggar child, for reminding me that maybe I'm not as calloused as I thought I was, because man kid, you shook me up which is a hard thing to do. As I sit here, AC on, having juice that the maid brought up, while munching on Chocos, I still don't know what to make of it all.