God bless us every one, especially the children

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The meanest streets are in India.

As the holidays are celebrated across America, I have just left New Mangalore, India, having stopped in Mumbai, Cochin and Goa. We are on a month-long journey from Dubai to South Africa.

Indelible image: a young Mumbai girl, about the age of my 10-year-old granddaughter, standing on a street corner with a rooster on her head. She waits at the spot where the tour buses drop off the passengers who are entering a nearby Jain temple. As the bus rolls to a stop, she catches our eye through the window and smiles big and sets and resets the rooster on her head, like a favorite hat.

This is her gig. She is a beggar with a gimmick. All big smiles and bright eyes, she is desperate for the tourists’ attention, and this is her corner. When you snap a picture of her with the rooster on her head through the bus window, she snaps a mental picture of you, and when you get out of the bus, she is there with an outstretched palm. Who could refuse? But she should be in school. And who watches out for her? And where does she go at night? Under a brutal sun, dressed in rags, she plays her rooster for all it’s worth.

Millions of Indian children live on the street, some in orphan groups, some with parents who have no shelter. They beg, offering trinkets for sale or nothing for sale except their shadowed eyes and skinny bodies. They are trapped in their lives. No matter what the “Incredible India” ads say, and despite the fact that the caste system is outlawed, if you are born to parents who clean toilets, that is your fate. No one goes from rags to riches except in the movies. “Slum Dog Millionaire” was all Bollywood and Hollywood.

The faces of these street kids are etched in memory. Only fate and luck have placed them in their broken shoes and dirty pants. Only better fate and luck have conferred the blessings of plenty on our children and grandchildren.

As we sail away, I think about what a tragic year 2014 has been for children all over the world. In the spirit of the holiday, giving to children seems a perfect way to feel good about doing good.

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