My own "Deewar" moment

(Deewar as in "Lambe race ka ghoda" scene rather than "Mere pass maa hain" scene.)

As I was walking around the MG road area in Pune, I heard a small voice behind me say, "Hello sir, can I polish your shoes?" I was surprised because I heard that line in English. I turned around and it was a kid of about 10 years with a small packet who repeated, "Can I polish your shoes sir? Very good polish." Very much amused but also in a hurry to finish some errands I told the boy that I didn't need it. After all, I was wearing some super cheap slippers that would probably die in a few months and at any rate would get dirty immediately after any polish. I kept walking and thought I lost the kid but as I crossing the road I heard the voice again, "Please sir, very good polish, only Rs. 2." (Rs.2? What the hell does he hope to accomplish with Rs. 2? How many people does he need to ask to get enough of them to agree to get a polish to raise enough money to eat a single meal???) "I'm sorry I just don't have the time to get my slippers polished. Here, let me just give you Rs. 5." Immediately the kid pulled himself back, "Sorry sir, I am not begging."

That kind of old-fashioned dignity and pride in oneself captured my attention and I said, "OK, let's go." He asked me to sit on a small bench and he proceeded to take my slippers and apply polish on them. I commented on his good English and he thanked me. He said he was from Rajasthan and not a lot of people get their shoes polished like I did (I suppose he was commenting on me being nice? I dunno.) He then asked me why people don't ask him to polish their shoes more. I tried to explain that people in this part of the city are probably very rich and don't bother with polish, they just throw them away if they don't look good anymore. Then I asked him why he was in Pune, so far away from Rajasthan, instead of going to, say, Delhi. Apparently he came here with his mom and kid siblings.

As this was going on, I was a bit on my guard. A Rs. 2 shoe polish was ridiculously cheap and the kid looked too innocent to be real. But nothing much happened. No hidden thugs jumping out to grab my wallet, or even pick it. No elaborate con. Just a simple shoeshine.

As the polish was going on, I had already decided to pay the kid much more than the Rs. 2 he had asked for. But then the kid started talking about how someone told him that he reason he couldn't get customers was because he didn't have a shoeshine box. I asked him how much one cost and he said Rs. 180. And as he was finishing up the polishing, he asked me to help him out with the box. Giving him the Rs. 180 wasn't a big deal for me. But somehow I got the nagging feeling that the entire innocent kid routine was the con to get the Rs. 180 out of me and that just killed the good samaritan in me. I gave him the Rs. 20 I had originally planned on giving him and walked away.