Business of beggers

This is Qasim. A young boy with cute smile and dirty clothes, wandering in the streets of Lahore, selling tissues for living instead of studying in a school. I met him today but couldn’t hear his full story as I was in rush to get bus.

He reminded me of a similar boy I met the night before. He was selling “Paras of Quran”, i.e. chapters of Quran. My mind kept comparing those two the whole time I was in bus.

In Pakistan, every city is filled with beggers. The moment you stop at a signal on road or go to a park or some market for shopping, you will find beggers everywhere. Now one of their ways to beg is by acting to sell something. Like tissues and “Paras of Quran” etc.

Now, what’s the difference between these two cases. When someone pays him for a packet of tissue, he charges double than it’s actual price and many a time the person paying will end up taking a packet.

But most of the time when a person pays to a person with “Paras of Quran”, they don’t take one with them. Why? Because, mostly people have a Quran at home and an eQuran in their smartphones. Further, people believe that carrying the sacred book or it’s chapters with them would be disrespectful in someway.

So, in this way, the boy pretending to sell “Paras of Quran” would never have to give away one and he can always keep acting and get money, while the boy selling tissues would be empty soon and would have to purchase more tissues sooner or later. Excellent strategy, isn’t it?

Now similar condition can be observed on macro level in Pakistan. Our so called political leaders, beg for money by the name of aid and in turn pretend to serve their agendas on one hand and public of Pakistan on the other.

The only way to change this situation is by changing at larger scale. I believe only education can do that. I hope that education sector in Pakistan would perform better in future.

#revolution #believe #change #educationsystem #love #Punjab #knowledge #lahore #changePakistan #study