Out on the road, one comes across many kinds of begging techniques which our versatile beggars use to make us part with some loose change. We see women with newborn children asking for help. We see weak and aging with a medical prescription in hand asking for help in buying medicines. We see young men carrying old men on their shoulders invoking mercy. Some beggars expose their wounds and beg for money. Some others pose as if they cannot speak. Young boys and girls come holding hands of old blind men asking for alms. All of these techniques are just too hackneyed, I think. The President of Pakistan, I tell you countrymen, has invented an absolutely new kind ofbegging. He takes a photograph of his late wife with him, displays it in the assembly of suited men and then asks for money. Unfortunately, the technique is still in the works and we have not had the desired results from our new way. Not for the lack of trying, though. And we shall try, try, again. -GHULAM DASTGIR, Pindi Bhattiyan, October 10.