Who is a beggar?

My first German Spring/Summer, i was very excited to travel and explore the country. One of my long time friend who had been working already in Germany for quite sometime visited me. I didn't want to miss that opportunity to make a trip and also made sure he sponsored for it.  We planned a day trip to a very famous Bavarian castle - 'Neuschwanstein' at Alps mountain.

Horse-carts  are used to carry passengers from the bus-station to the castle which is a couple of kilometers away on a hill. But many people chose to walk up the hill. There some wonderful viewpoints on the way to the castle.  We decided to walk up the hill and its easy to describe the experience of walking through Alps. Check out the pictures.

On the way up, we saw a man dressed up in traditional Bavarian attire and singing on the road side, i assumed to be a beggar, didn't mind him as i have seen a lot such people at the busy places like railway stations, shopping streets in some cities so far I traveled in this country. Finally we reached the top, visited the castle and clicked some beautiful pictures.

On our way down, we saw the same guy who could be in his early 50s, singing and lots of people gathered around him to listen and some of them were also singing along with him. 

It was a very attractive scene, so we stopped and started watching the scene. The instrument that he played was something new which i never seen anywhere so i was simply staring at the instrument anyway i do not understand the song. The song got over, people put some money for him and left. But i was still staring at the instrument from a corner, looking at me the man quickly recognized that and said "Hello ! Would like to know about this instrument?"

Holy Cow !! I was surprised at his English. It is not common in Germany for someone of his age to speak English. Even at my university  many teachers and students are not good at English. Unlike India, English is a real foreign language in this country. I was frozen for a while, then i moved closer to him and he explained me about the instrument in very good English. Later he said " i will sing a summer song for you " and started to sing a German song about summer. After finishing this song, i went up to him to put some money in the hat he placed in front of him for money collection. He called me closer and showed me few albums which he has released. He gave a small talk about his music(albums) and gave me a greeting card. And you know what...Back side of the greeting card had his email address and website. YES !!   He has his own website too !!!

I felt really awful within, i thought at first that he was a beggar. Actually he is not, he is not begging there. Singing and playing music for money is a not act of begging. He is an entertainer and we are gifting him money for this service. I'm ashamed of myself. I wondered how i had assumed those musicians as beggar. When i looked at myself, i understand that it was a kind of mindset i developed as grew up (could be an impact of social culture) somehow i had been seeing the people who sing along the road sides were beggars. 

Then in the whole return journey back to my place, i was trying to understand, how naturally certain prejudice arises within ourselves by shunning down own intelligence. i was wondering how big the social culture can influence one's life. For the next several days I was trying to define in my own terms who is a beggar in a society?

-The End-