We are aware of them, the ones sitting on the railway
platforms, sleeping on footpaths, under the park benches, huddled in the
corners of the street talking to shadows, yet it is seldom that we notice them,
for us they are all the same, just a set of unruly clothes, sunken faces dirty
with gloom and despair, we barely consider them as humans, they are just a spot
of dirt on the glorious face of this glistening city. We just pass by them
without looking at them, without even accepting their existence,
afraid…..afraid perhaps of their poverty, perhaps of their …… god knows what…. it’s just that we seem
afraid to look up at them and meet their stares or at least just accept their
existence.
“Waseem” as he says his name is, is one such youth of
the many that dwell on the streets of this city. Sometimes a coolie who stows
luggage, sometimes the man who carries dead bodies to the hospital, sometimes a
waiter, at times of dire need a rag
picker, thus like all the other street youths Waseem changes his profession according to the market
demands . Take a good look at him, his thin lanky frame covered with what you
might call as rags, sunken face garnished with thin moustache and a beard which
sticks out from all possible angles (surely
there is nothing great or striking in this man to make him important to us).
You ask him about his parents, he smiles and with a slight shake of his head he
utters, “yaad nahi” (doesn’t remember them), ask him about his age, he thinks
for a moment and assumes it to be something in between 20-25, the only thing he
remembers is that he used to live in Hyderabad from where he ran away to come
to stay in Mumbai. When asked about the
reasons as of why he ran away; you just get a smile in reply. As per what he
says it has been 15 years since he has made the footpaths of Azad Maidan his
abode.
Waseem has witnessed the change in Azad Maidan; from
being a place when anyone astray entered the street of Azad Maidan in the wee
hours of night was robbed, injured or even raped to a place which in comparison
to the older times is a safer haven for homeless people. According to Waseem
things have improved a lot these days for which he credits Saathi (NGO for street youths). In fact today
Waseem himself is a part and a contributor to this change, working under the Beghar
Yuva Pahalan initiated by Saathi which aims at injecting hope
and self-empowerment amongst the distressed road side youths.
The incident
Santosh Yadav an 18 year old resident of thane
wakes up at Byculla Station (near Mumbai) on a normal Saturday, which by no
means was normal for him as he recalls the incident. Santosh says that he was
made unconscious by some stranger who had offered him something to eat, and
when he woke up, he found himself at the Byculla station, being new to the
place and not having any idea how to get back to his house Santosh somehow
lands himself up at Azad Maidan which as mentioned before has an infamous
history. Cold and tired Santosh decides to sleep; it was when he tried to
settle himself down in a corner he hears a man’s gruff voice asking him from
the darkness, “idhar naya hai kya?” (Are you new here?). Santosh turns around
intending to look at the source of the voice and sees a rough, scarred face of
Waseem looming in the dim light of a match stick lighted by him while putting
forth the question. An afraid, hungry and cold Santosh mumbles in a weak voice,
“mujhe ghar jana hai” (I want to go home) upon which Waseem smiles and starts off
with an informal conversation just to put Santosh at ease. Perhaps it was the
situation that acted out as the cementing factor for their instant friendship,
it was not long before Santosh started spilling out his mind, speaking about
how he reached there and where his house was and all such details. Early next
morning Waseem wakes Santosh up, buys him a cup of tea and something to eat and
purchasing the train tickets they board a train and start out for santosh’s
home. The relief that Santosh’s distressed parents experienced when they saw
him return unharmed and safe was beyond the realm of words, “tum ne bhagwan ban
kar humare bacche ko baccha liya” (you came like a God and rescued our child)
is what Santosh’s parents had to say about Waseem and when they offered him a
reward of Rs.1000 for saving Santosh’s life, he was reluctant to accept it.
Santosh and Waseem they both have returned
to their daily lives, Santosh is happy with his family and Waseem is back to
his abode, the footpaths of Azad Maidan. What Waseem did was something very
uncommon, he was not bound by any social obligations, he could have easily
ignored or could even have taken advantage of the helplessness of Santosh, but
he made a choice, a choice to help which we people usually in our daily
scheduled, busy life forget. Waseem also stood up as an example that to help
someone, to be kind to someone you don’t need to be educated, you need not have
a good family and social upbringing, you don’t necessarily have to be an
idealistic person , all you need is to have a heart to help others and a bit of
humanity left in you.
Today with the
support of Saathi, Waseem is working
as a catalyst imparting and imbibing change and awareness to a group of
socially oppressed and ignored youths, demonstrating the importance of the education
called as “life”.
* A sincere thanks to Winnie Thomas and
Arif Kapadia for sharing this incident and allowing me to reproduce it.
