Hamburg is a very happening place.Second biggest port in Europe..A young vibrant population…dazzling concerts..high adrenalin football matches..a thriving night life..!!
It is also famous for another reason ..Reeperbahn…The place is the second largest red light area in the world after Amsterdam..The place is a shell shocker for sure for any desi visiting the place..Instead of being a place which might be looked down upon..the place is the pride of Hamburg..The place is more of a tourist place now for the cult following it has and the heady mix of sex..liquour and rock music…Saturday nights makes this place into a wild watering hole where any apparent human inhibitions doesnt exist beyond midnight....Drugs..pyschedlic music..and trance..all extremes just concentrate in this place..Amazingly volatile place that this place has the highest concentration of Police anywhere in Germany…
If Saturday night was great for most people who come to Reeperbahn..Sunday mornings reveals the brunt..Broken beer bottles..People penniless after gambling all night…Drunk people on the floor..some still sober..some drowsy..and some awake…and some puking …Prostitutes goin back home sans their make up…The place is so strikingly disgusting and repulsive on Sunday mornings… But quite near this place..there is a small unassuming building..A statue of Mother Mary adorns the building..
3 pm..
This is when all the penniless and the downtrodden who had the cheap beer last night come to their senses..A small queue builds up near the building…People are let in batches of 75..The Mother arrives and a short prayer follows..Then the food is served..The people go back after lunch…Seemingly simple..But I am simply astonished by the determination and will power of the sister’s there…considering that.....
1.The food is given free of cost to whoever comes to the charity home..
2.The food is served to people whom we wouldn’t dare like to look twice at…
3.The people who come in are the drunkards..drug addicts..ex and current prostitutes..
4.More hurting that the sister’s know they aren’t going to change for the better and sure gonna come again..
5.No one is denied when asked for extra helpings..Simply..no one comes in and goes out hungry from this place..
6.Around 250-300 people are served food every Sunday from 3pm to 6pm..
7.The Sister’s cycle around the city checking out at bakeries for any leftover bread and rest comes from charitable people..
8.Some people mouth obscenities during prayer session(obviously lost and still drunk) which the sister’s forgive..
9.There is no conversion or rhetoric in what they..It is a slient prayer for the food.and a passage reading from the Bible..
10.They serve..pasta..salad..bacon..sauce..curd..and a packet of bread for whoever knocks the door..
11.Half the people comin in are genuinely hungry..and the rest comes in coz its free..
This place is so happy..!!!
The energy and spirit that flows was amazing..3-4 sisters from the missionaries of charity..all diminutive and simple..but with radiance of a face to which we just smile at without any reason…The power of forgiveness and charity which they embraced wasn’t that easy..Nor was the effort they put in giving food for anyone who knocks the charity home..
These guys are goin to have a crack next Saturday too..and these prostitutes are also goin to get drunk with some fatso next satuday..But for sure they gonna comeback the following Sunday..A free lunch for them.. But for the missionaries of charity .unflinching love and happiness of giving food for a hungry man!! Cheers to their spirit!!!
15 years ago
6 comments:
Its just amazing how humans still have it in them to accept and nurture unconditionally.. :)
The lost people!how rightly said!
To believe they can bring on the change even when they see no change is truly the spirit of their charity!
Was there some 2 weeks back!!! But we came to Hamburg on a Saturday morning and left around 7.00.
Since I hadnt being to Amsterdam till that time, the experince was new!!!!
One full street for sex!!!!!!! toys,porn,prostitutes,drugs u name it !!!
I liked the city for the numerous Indian Restaurants and the old city feeling u get!!!!
Hope u are safe and sound there!!!
Must've been quite an experience Chekks..
Have been reading disturbing posts since morning. They are put up on my blog's did you read section on the sidebar, if you want to check.
But thankfully read this post, must say it's so commendable :) and am feeling a little better knowing that there are wonderful people like those sisters and you around :)
about the kindness that one would normally expect of the beggars for the free meal..
there's a not-so-well-known book by George Orwell called 'down and out in paris and london' in which he describes how hateful these people find the whole thing... they know that they need the charity and hate the sisters for providing it... it's quite realistic and moving... not all that we feel is obvious is really true...
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