OK. So a number of people have asked me if the beggar situation here is as intolerable and oppressing as it is reputed to be. The reputation is well-known, and as we were being prepared to be sent here, we were coached a lot about how to physically deal with it, how to emotionally deal with it, and how to socially deal with it. So we were prepared. And? Well. It's NOTHING like they said it would be. Apparently, the reputation comes from large northern cities, Delhi in particular. Here in the sunny South, it is not nearly as bad as we had been prepared to believe. There are relatively few children and even fewer folks with deformities.

That said, it is pretty unnerving. They go for me particularly, though they go after Chris pretty regularly too. The most distressing part about it is the physicality of it. They pinch my arms and pull my hair. They say “madame” and move their little hands from their tummies to their mouths. And of course, it is very depressing and sad and your first instinct is to just buck convention and give them some rupees. I mean, I have a lot of them and they don't have any. But everything they get goes directly to their parents and often doesn't make it into their bellies. And once you hand something to one child, there instantly appear, out of nowhere, a horde of them. And you can't help them all. Of course, therein lies the distress.

Sympathies aside, it is extremely unnerving to have little children attacking you and following you for a VERY long time. As they are pretty rootless, they don't care at all if they walk a mile. Or two. In fact, it often seems to break up the monotony of their day. And we are interesting, being tall and white and all. This, I suspect, is why our American friends seem to look at us like we're crazy when they find out how much we walk around. Well. One of the reasons, anyway.

I am going to carry fruit and candies with me. Conventional wisdom is that, right before you go into whatever establishment or car you were trying to get to, it can be OK to give them something that they can eat right then and there, before somebody takes it away from them. But other Indians hate them and it can be a fine line to walk, being an outsider.

Chris seems to have stumbled onto an extraordinarily effective solution. When they pinch his arm, he smiles at them and lightly smacks their hands. They are completely taken aback and giggle and stare at him. Then they pretty much leave him alone, though they think he's very funny and follow him at a distance. Apparently the novelty of being smacked on the hand by a foreigner is as good as a rupee. I tried it, but they just giggle more and pull my hair more.

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