Expectations
Anybody who spends any time in the bazaars of my loved country, India comes to face with the many beggars and the countless people begging all the time. They have numerous deities, a ready beckoner of lines where they are blessing you with two sons, healthy life unaccountable riches. It is a part of life, we ignore them carrying on with the hustle bustle of our lives, not even acknowledging them, just letting be a part of the background. I happened to see one lady who was carrying a snotty nosed kid on her side and she would wander from one car to another asking for money to fill her stomach and to buy milk for her child. There was a young boy who had his hand stretched out holding out for anything. A person walking by had a bag of oranges and he looked at the boy and gave him one of the oranges which he promptly took. It seemed that the person who was giving him felt good responding to him, reaching out. But the little boy just walked away. NO smile, no thank you, not even a nod, nothing.
To me an interested onlooker, it seemed that the person giving wanted something back. An acknowledgement, the absence of a response made him shake his head and smile to himself as if saying that the motive in giving was an acknowledgement. He probably did not want effusive thanks but he sure did want some kind of response after giving the orange, but he did want something. And the child just took the orange and walked away.
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