“One Rupee…”
It's raining again and they're outside. The monsoons have returned to Calcutta without regard for the millions, literally millions, lining the streets.
Calcutta, a city of 17 million inhabitants, can boast of more than 12 million people living on the streets or in slums. The city stands as a reminder of a hurting world, a sobering reality of a hungry and homeless world.
In one sense it's good to be back in Calcutta… but tonight my heart is heavy.
Children everywhere. The little ones on the streets are dressed in torn and tattered rags if not naked. Bloated stomachs and protruding bellies jut out against a cage of clearly defined ribs. Taught to beg, the children walk down the streets following their next potential benefactor, persistently asking for a handout.
Today, as is the case everyday in Calcutta, it was me they followed. As they walked with me I looked upon their tired little faces. Staring back a me were half smiles trying to disguise the hunger beneath them and then an occasional plea for “one rupee… please uncle, just one rupee… I'm so hungry, just one rupee”.
In the currency of the USA a rupee isn't worth 3 lousy pennies, and it's all they ask for here in Calcutta. It's all a starving child wants from the “rich” foreigners he sees walking up and down the streets of his home.
Sure one rupee won't go very far, but it's enough to buy a chapati or roti or just enough rice to subside the hunger pains.
Tonight, as I sit in the room at this guest house, I can hear the thunder rolling- crashing violently as the monsoon rains pour down on the helpless victims of Calcutta's streets.
Tonight one rupee won't help anyone. Tonight millions won't sleep- you see, the pavement is their home, their bed.
Millions will stand under whatever cover they can find, the few dry places in this city will be crowded with the malnourished, dirty, sick and tired men, women and children of Calcutta who don't have a home.
Those fortunate enough to live in the slums will have to try to stop the leaks in the roofs of their cardboard homes… but it won't matter. When the rains really start to fall the sewers, already backed up, will cause floods and the slum dwellers will have to search for a dry place as well.
Tomorrow, when the sun comes out, I wonder how many children will have caught colds from a wet and sleepless night. How many of those boys and girls won't be able to live past the effects of their cold? The dysentery, infection and parasites that have almost finished them off only need something a simple as a cold to steal the remaining strength and add another life the statistics of poverty.
These are the boys and girls of India- Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and Madras- and all they asked for today, when it was still warm and dry out, was for one rupee.
I'm sending you a rupee note. Not to take it away from those who need it most, but hopefully it can be given it back.
Please put this somewhere that you'll see it often- on the fridge, on your desk, use it as a bookmark, whatever and where ever it will be most visible.
Let it be a reminder, a call to prayer, so that when you glance at it you'll remember to pray for these little ones.
Pray for the boys and girls of India that God's mercy would be shown to them. Pray that the millions and millions starving to death would suffer no longer.
Pray that their pleas for “one rupee” would be answered.
I guarantee your prayers will be heard. I know your prayers will be answered. So please, for the children, take some time on their behalf and ask God to help them.
(July 1, 1996)