Allah ke naam pe de de baba

The sign of any city growing up is the corporatization of all the sectors in the city. Big cities like Mumbai and New York are known to have a well organised underworld and mafia organisations.

I am not too sure about Bangalore's underworld but the begging scene in Bangalore is witnessing a radical change. The beggars have gotten a lot more organised. They are well dispersed at the traffic signal and try not to interfere in each others business (And obviously, the huge traffice jams at these signals help their cause). They choose their clients a lot more carefully and a lot more study. They pick their victim's weakness a lot better. If you are well dressed they start touching you because most of these people don't like it.

There has been a drastic improvement in the presentation aspect of it, too. There are shows put up (acrobatics), there is costume and colour (kids dressed as Hanuman). The beggars are a lot more persuasive nowadays. They don't let go of their clients that easily.

Ironically, begging seems have to become a capitalist venture. And like a lot of other capitalistis ventures, they are getting ugly too. The kids doing the acrobatics are surely beaten up when they are "trained". Infants are given on rent for a day to gather that extra sympathy. And the way these corporatized beggars hound you, the unorganized sector of the beggars definitely loose out. Its like your grocer round the corner shutting down because of the super market on the main road.