Black Lagoon (standard:Fan Fiction, 2167 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Nov 23 2010	Views/Reads: 2967/2062	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A story on city pan handlers

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

people trickled in slowly. These devotees sat on the temple stone 
floors chatting than participating in prayers, and made no donations to 
the beggars.  On these days, Paru sat alone at the entrance of the 
temple while Marayya roamed the town begging the small shopkeepers at 
the curbside. 

To entice the shop owners to donate few coins, Marayya came out with a
simple plan. Since every shop has either picture or small idol of one 
or more of Hindu gods, Marayya conducted a brief on-site puja (prayer) 
singing one of his melodies, and lit an incense stick. As the perfume 
smoke from the burning incense filled the storefront, he prayed loud 
and placed a flower in front of the idol. 

Marayya dressed appropriately with a loose-fitting garb or loincloth in
shades of yellow, orange, or red, representing the color of purity. He 
groomed his long beard and shoulder length hair. He rubbed his bare 
shoulders and forehead with vebuthi or scented limestone powder to 
symbolize purity and disinterest in worldly comforts. In one hand, he 
carried a large sea conch that sounded like a saxophone when he blew 
air threw a small hole at one end. For Hindus, the sound of conch is 
symbolic victory over evil as depicted in epic war in Mahabaratha, an 
ancient scripture. Marayya blew the conch for few seconds so as not to 
irritate the shopkeeper or his customers with the annoying sound. 

Marayya would accomplish the prayer duties- lighting up the incense
stick, and a quick recital that ended with blowing the conch in quick 
succession. Since, a prayer was conducted only during shop opening 
hours, he moved fast to cover several shops to repeat the prayer 
ritual.  During these daily routines, he never begged for money. On 
Fridays, however, he would carry a large brass plate with yellow 
turmeric powder and few leaves of Tulasi, a plant sacred to Hindus, to 
collect dakshen (monetary donation) from the shopkeepers. As the 
shopkeepers dropped coins into his plate, he gave one or two sacred 
Tulasi leaves to shop owners as prasad (god's gift). When Marayya 
visited the shops to conduct on-site prayer, he acted more like a 
person of god than a beggar did.  The melodies he learnt from his 
mother and the garb he wore made easy for him to transform into a godly 
person from the simple beggar he was. 

On Saturdays and Hindu festive celebrations, he joined his wife Paru at
the temple to beg the temple devotees.  “Babu, Baba, Narayana (ultimate 
god), please look at these unfortunate, worthless lives,” begged 
Marayya pointing to himself and wife at the temple entrance. 

On occasions, Paru borrowed one or two malnourished children from other
beggars to sit close to her to beg for kindness of the devotees to feed 
the children. 

“Marayya, do you think I can join with you to beg the storefronts, I
wasn't collecting anything at all on weekdays at the temple except 
guarding our space,” Paru reasoned one day with her husband. 

“People were accustomed to see godly men not women conducting the
prayers, many consider godly women as bad omen, ” said thoughtful 
Marayya to Paru. 

Paru's disappointment was overwhelming. She spent most of her life at
the temple, people are not as generous as in the past towards the 
beggars. With a mean look at her, some devotees even commented that she 
should get a servant job than squatting comfortably to beg for easy 
money. 

“Listen Paru, we have to secure our places at the temple first before we
make any plans, may be we could ask some other beggars at the temple to 
occupy our space in return to share their collection, but again, they 
may not be honest at the end of the day to share the agreed amount with 
us,” pondered Marayya. 

“We can sell the space for good and never go back to the temple?” Paru,
now really thinking in business terms. 

“True, at least we need to replace the temple income as meager it was
with something else before we consider that option,” Marayya was 
thinking loud. 

“You know Paru, I see lots of tourists from other countries at some of
the big hotels in the town, they look rich otherwise they won't be 
visiting this far off country, you could try begging at the hotels' 
entrance,” advised Marayya. 

Marayya wasted no time to negotiate a good price for their life long
forward spaces in temple row with other long time beggar, and moved on 
with his plans with his wife. 

Paru dressed in rags would stand near the entrance of a five-star hotel
in down town to beg the tourists. Every time she saw tourists came out 
of the hotel, she ran behind them begging for money “Sir, Babu, Baba, 
please help me to eat at least once a day,” she cried.  The hotel 
security guards kept beggars away from the hotel entrance but Paru's 
persistence to reach the foreign tourists always paid off. 

Paru has no children of her own, she borrowed children of other beggars
to surround herself while begging for mercy. Some foreigners were 
forgiving and threw money at her and some distanced themselves from her 
with disgust. 

Though Paru struggled every day with the security guards at the hotels
to reach the tourists, she came out good at the end of the day compared 
with begging at the temple. The foreigners showed more pity and donated 
more compared with temple devotees who visited the temple for god's 
free blessing and prasad (free give away like fruits). 

Paru occupied a permanent place for herself at the entrance of a
five-star hotel. Though the hotel security would chase her away several 
times a day, she would return to her spot.  “Beggars are not choosers,” 
she would repeat it loud to herself like mantra. “You know, we have to 
make a living like you,” she would make demands at the security guards 
who were accustomed to her presence at the hotel entrance. 

Marayya's vision of begging expanded as years went by. He could not
cover many stores during the limited morning hours to conduct the quick 
prayer. And, the shop owners preferred prayers only in the morning 
hours for good business through out the day. 

Meanwhile, Marayya was facing stiff competition from others, who were
slowly trickling to the City to make living by performing on-site puja 
at the storefronts. 

Marayya realized that he could not compete with so many other
competitors that were taking away his business.  He formulated a 
business plan to bring his competitors that perform storefront prayers 
into a single group and manage the entire business. 

Marayya cajoled or threatened if necessary his competitors to join with
him peacefully in the business venture. Marayya dressed permanently in 
prayer garb to give credibility to his own authority over his 
competitors. 

He bought the incense sticks, turmeric powder, vebuthi etc., in bulk to
distribute to his members. He chose the routes carefully to assign to 
his members and never allowed any one member to visit the same route 
several times to discourage friendship with the shop owners.  He 
maintained a tight grip over the membership and their loyalty. After 
expenses for material supplied such as brass plates, incense sticks, 
turmeric powder, loose fitting garbs, wooden bead necklaces etc., 
Marayya paid weekly stipends to the beggars turned roaming godly 
persons. 

Marayya and Paru have no place of their own to live. They slept on the
sidewalks or at construction sites.   With the income from storefront 
prayers and begging at five-star hotels, Marayya and Paru built a shed 
with metal sheets at the edge of black lagoon, named after its dark 
brackish water. The lagoon was a reservoir into which raw sewage was 
drained through a network of city open sewer system.  Not many town 
people walk pass near the black lagoon as the intense stench of sewer 
gas around the black lagoon made people sick. Only funeral processions 
took place around the lagoon since the only town cremation ground was 
located in that area. 

Mostly beggars found themselves living on the edge of the black lagoon.
For Marayya and Paru living on the edge of the black lagoon in their 
own home, though a tin shed was a vast improvement in their life style. 


Every day, early in the morning, Marayya and his men clad in loose garb
in orange or red left the black lagoon walking slowly towards their 
assigned routes to conduct on-site prayers at storefronts. Paru and 
other women traveled to either hotels or temples to occupy their 
designated spaces. 

Marayya and Paru turned the curbside begging considered as low-life into
well-established enterprise of professional panhandling with purpose of 
providing on-site prayer to many storefronts or exploiting the foreign 
tourists. 

Marayya with his own prayer team to cover several storefronts in town
and Paru with her lucrative place to beg at a five-star hotel entrance, 
settled comfortably at the edge of the black lagoon, a place of their 
own.  They often said to themselves “who said beggars are not 
choosers.” 


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