The Beggar

“The Beggar - A Struggle Between Hope and Destiny” is a story of an eight-year old boy, Ronald, or Ron who finds himself in the trap of his treacherous destiny. After death of his dad and forcefully separated from his mum, Ron finds himself orphaned and in the care of an abusive step-grandmother. He is forced to drop out of school and begins a life of a young farmer. Life threatening struggles and constant abuses from his grandmother become his daily experiences. Eventually she also disowns him and Ron begins to learn the harsh reality of life. He has two options; either he must beg to survive; or starve to death. He chooses to live. Despite being instilled from very tender age that begging was a sin, Ron, forces himself into the trade. He faces daily mistreatments and assaults from pass-abyss and harassments from Police. In the company of other beggars, shoe-shine boys, street kids and prostitutes, young Ron finds the elusive warmth of a family. He finds the love and affection that he had been longing for. But he is not satisfied. He begins to dream of education and reunion with his mum. Breaking the norms of his new found `beggar' family, Ron begins to save money to succeed in life. However, with his courage and determination to fight and succeed against his tyrant destiny, Ron becomes envy of his own friends. Abuses and assaults, this time from colleagues, return to hunt him. Failing to shake his courage and determination, attempt is made to murder him, however he miraculously survives. As if Ron's sufferings were not enough, doctors diagnose that he is suffering from a Ventricular Septal Defect, or in lay-man's words, a defective heart that would require substantial amount of money for surgery. The news devastates him as he has to abandon some of his daily work that helped him in saving money. Breaking through the religious barriers imposed by the various religious sects, and other society taboos, Ron finally finds himself enrolled in school. However, abuses appear to have become his synonym. Teachers and fellow students feel insulted to have a beggar sitting among them and yet again abuses return to taunt him. Ron knows that his thirst for education is far greater than his self-esteem. In spite of embracing abuses and struggles by his fellow students, Ron is forced to drop out of school. Ron concentrates on his work and eventually, saving enough money, he boards the plane to Auckland. Ron's deceitful destiny yet again betrays him. He is tricked and ends up as a slave on a dairy farm, but he is not yet ready to give up. He continues to dream; dream of liberty and freedom; dream of uniting with his mum; dream of succeeding in life. He is surprised that other slaves on the farm have no dreams of liberty. He learns that the results of past escape-attempts by earlier slaves were met with gruesome death. He is told that escape from the farm was impossible and that he must accept his fate. Refusing to accept the status-quo, Ron gradually ignites the dire flame of freedom in other slaves and together, they form a team of slaves and plan to escape. Then one late afternoon, he and his two companions set-off in their bid to regain their freedom from their captivity. However, their plans to escape severely miscarry. With the slave-masters hot on their pursuit, tough terrain to conquer and with little food, Ron and his colleagues fear for the worst. Their hopes of survival begin to diminish as the fearful claws of death slowly strengthen its grips on them. In this virtually impossible escape-mission, his companion's parish. However Ron refuses to give up and vows to achieve freedom for his dead colleagues. Just as he sees an unexpected ray of hope to succeed, his ailing heart gives in. Who would win in this struggle between sheer hope and determination on one end, and a cruel destiny on another? Would Ronald succeed? Would he unite with his mum? Would he taste success? The book keeps the readers guessing throughout, till the very last page.