I stayed at a cafe for a little more than an hour the other day, the distance between me and the homeless person was a few inches. We are separated by a floor to ceiling glass window, I literally sat behind him, sharing the same line of sight for about an hour.

Homelessness is one of the many fabrics of New York City life, as expected, I didn’t think the homeless person sitting in front of me would garner much attention (thus wouldn’t get much sympathetic donation), not for the amount of time I was there with him anyway. But he did get a $5 dollar note towards the end of my stay. Within a minute, a taller homeless person walked towards “my guy”, and took the note. I felt angry for “my guy” for a bit because he had to leave the spot to go after the tall one and got into some sort of argument, “my guy” was clearly upset. However, he ended up joining the tall one at the spot not too far from the cafe, the two of them just sit and chat as if no argument has happened!?!…. Anyway, the tall guy owns a couch for one, a blanket and a makeshift coffee table. I gathered (I’ll never know), he must be a pimp of sorts, running his fellow homeless “friends” like a tough boss.

There are many other homeless persons round the corner and across the street, I wonder how many of them are working together as a team and how different their “operation” is from the notorious/ horrifying beggar rings operating in China/ India.

After spending almost two years in this city, I’ve come to recognize some of the homeless persons on the street in places I frequent. Not to forget the countless floating ones who come with gut wrenching stories on the train, walking along different carriages day in and day out as the trains go up and down town. And the ones who decided to take up the whole bench, emptying the whole carriage due to months without shower (probably).

As one of the richest cities in the world, this fabric of life is very real and should not be forgotten.