“Uncle! Can you buy me a cake?”
Deepti and I were in Amma’s Pastries, 18th Cross, Malleshwaram to get birth day cake for Alok. The question was shot at me by a boy, aged 12-13, in half pants and shirt, barefoot and clutching some books in his hands.
I couldn’t believe my ears for few seconds. Firstly, I was addressed as “Uncle”. And second, a young kid was demanding/begging inside a cake shop. I enquired where did he live, where were his chappaIs and didn’t he have money for the cake. He smartly answered that he lived in some part of Bangalore, he had lost his chappals somewhere, etc. Then I asked him what did he want and he pointed towards a Chocolate Cheese cake. I didn’t know what to do? Not because the cake was worth ` 18/- but this was the second time I was about to be cheated by a smart kid (I will write about the first time some other day). To tell you the truth I didn’t want to buy that cake for him coz I don’t encourage begging. But there I found myself opening my wallet, paying money to the cashier and handing over the cake to the boy. The boy said “Thank you Uncle”. By this time I found Deepti asking and scolding me that what the hell was I doing.
Many thoughts had come across my mind by this time. I had realized that I was cheated again by another smart kid. So I wanted to talk to the boy and tell him that it wasn’t right to ask people in shops /restaurants for cake or something. I wanted to tell him that what he was doing was equivalent to begging. I wanted to ask him that how would his parents feel when they come to know about it.
So I turned around to have a little “moral chat” with the boy but he was not to be found anywhere.
