Tale of Two Chachas

There are two beggars in New Eskaton, where my home is in Dhaka. I call them my daytime chacha and my nighttime chacha. Chacha means uncle, my father's brother, to be precise.

I encounter one of them when I cross the Bangla Motor on friday mornings. He walks with the assistance of a stick and wears an islamic skull cap. Skull caps are essential if you want to buy sympathy from Islamic minded folks, both of them wear the caps, in fact. He once told me that he has three children in school after I gave him a substantial donation. He always encounters my mother in traffic stop and asks for a shirt. After I gave him the money, he said that he'll buy clothes for his children with that money.

The nighttime chacha has a rudimentary stroller. Ok, stroller is a stretch, it's basically a piece of wood with four small steel wheels on each corner. He sits on the stroller, and then uses his hands to move toward the cars and then move back during traffic. I only encounter him at night, so I don't know how he functions during the day. At night, he sits in front of the multi-storeyed buildings called Eskaton Plaza, in the dark, with a Tasbeeh, or counter, and just extends his hands whenever someone walks by. It took me couple of donations to be able to engage in conversation with him. I'd ask him, "Bhalo asen to? (you're well, right?)" and he'd respond, "Allay Rakhsey (Allah has kept me)"

My daytime chacha is very understanding, if I tell him I don't have money, he'd say, next time, and then he'll say, "doa kori-re baba" (I'm praying for you, son). The first time I really appreciated his prayer was on May 11, 2005, when my nephew Aiyan was born. I had to drive my cousin's wife to the hospital, and we stood in the traffic intersection, and I told him that I didn't have time, and he said that he's praying for us. We were worried about the pregnancy outcome, and I felt safe somehow. Aiyan, after days of hospital stay, was fine, and I made a donation the following friday out of gratitude.

I was at Karteh Seh this afternoon for getting photos, and saw a beggar who looked just like my nighttime chacha, with the same type of white cotton skull cap. I was in a car, didn't have small enough change with me, and he was at a distance. But I tried to wave at him just like I do in Dhaka, and tried to establish a connection. He stared at me, probably tried to assess if I was gonna say something, realized that I was too far away, then looked at a different direction while I was stuck in traffic.

Is wanting to do something good same as actually doing something good? Or does it just give some sort of false complacency that at least you tried? Whatever the outcome, it made me long for familiar things for the first time since I've been here.