Farah Haider, 24 February 2010
St. Martin's Island, Bangladesh
When we step forward from the jetty in the Saint Martin Island, we were looking for a luggage carrier. We had a heavy suitcase with us. To my surprise I discovered that 5/6 kids were trying to grab our suitcase. All of them wanted to carry our suitcase from the jetty to a rickshaw van. One of them was so little that my dad decided to pick him. That small kid was hardly 5 years old, very thin and weak. When I asked dad why he had chosen such a tiny kid, he replied: “All other kids are fighting among themselves for carrying the luggage, eventually they will obtain their customer one by one. But this kid is not strong enough to compete with others. I don’t want to encourage this kid for begging by giving him money for nothing.”
I was watching other kids. The small kids pulled the huge heavy baggage over their head. The weights were at least 4 or 5 times more than their weight. I was wondering how our tiny luggage carrier will bear it, he might crack his backbone. Then I saw my dad transferring the suitcase from the staircase of our ship to the jetty and pulled it halfway. Dad told the little kid to walk beside our suitcase. After crossing two thirds of the small bridge connected with the jetty, dad let the little kid hold the long handle of the suitcase so that the kid can grab the suitcase easily. Other people didn’t let their luggage be dragged; the wheels or the string of the suitcase might break!
At the end of the bridge dad picked up the suitcase and placed it safely inside the rickshaw van. The deal was for 20 Taka as far as I can remember. The deprived kid captured my dad’s mind in such a way that he gave 50 Taka to him. The little kid was so happy that he couldn’t stop smiling. Then the kid was asking when we would leave from St. Martin so he could carry our luggage next time.
Most of the people in the ship were bargaining with those kids. It may sound odd but this is a common practice here. Why would someone give his extra blood-sweat money to others out of pity? If they express any sympathy towards them, then what about the other millions of misfortune kids-beggar-hardcore poor people here? So better leave them for the government or to their fate.
Everybody has his own justification. Again, some may think in another way.
“I may not change million people’s life but why not put a little smile on a little face for a moment.”
