Asha - 'a hope'
Asha – ‘a hope’
While carrying out the the clothes distribution drive, we chanced upon this group of about 30 makeshift huts made of bare minimum. I thought they might be the huts of labourers working in the constructions happening in Gurgaon – the so called Manhattan of India. I was wrong.
The moment we got down to distribute the clothes, there was a chaos, the whole crowd pounced on us. There was a woman with her child trying to get our attention by a repeatitive request with a smile(there was something irritating in it too). There was a woman with a handicapped child and the child had been told to move in such a way that his handicap is more prominently visible. There was a woman with an uncovered shivering girl child. Eerybody trying to get attention. It was chaos and a shock for us khushi, sunita, mudrika, mahesh. I was trying to make sense. It was something anyone would run away from at first instant and here we were inside it by our choice. There was an urge to run away but I resisted it
As we tried to identify kids who needed help. And as the men and women tried to get more out us in terms of the kids clothes and biscuit packets. I was only trying to make sense out f it. There was no respect for each other. The men did not respect the women and the men and women did not respect the kids. There was no respect for any human emotions. I saw a man pull a womans hair, I saw a woman slap a child. What was going on? Why? The hour long exercise was too exhausting but we were able to give clothes to some kids and distribute the biscuits.
One day later Sunita said that let us provide one cooked meal to the people in that place. Now, I did not have the courage to serve cooked food in that crowd(in my mind I was seeing them pounce and grab) but since Sunita was keen to take on all the work and effort, right from contributing the amount to getting the stuff cooked and transported, I agreed to be part of it. We were hoping that the people would organise properly when food was being served and when there was enough for all. We were wrong. The situation was even worse with every one trying to collect maximum. The men wanted and had before the kids and women, fine, no problem. There were women trying to collect for later. There were kids trying to protect what they had managed from other kids and have it too. There was an infant shrieking wildly every time anyone would come close to his plate while his mother was gone for more. At the end of the 2 hr exercise all was over and they had had their fill and collected for later too.
A possible answer to why they were behaving like this, was that people had come in the past and dumped the food/items before running away, leaving these people to fight over it. But it was not the complete answer.
They were ethnically, genetically different. They didn’t seem like one large family. Neither did they look like a tribe. Some were very dark, some very white, short, tall. Why were they staying together in these hutments?
The adults thankfully went away after the food. The kids remained behind. We started talking to them and they collected around us. Finally, they wanted to talk. No more pouncing or begging. They were joyfully telling how many times they had the sweet halwa. One said “I had ten times, mazaa aa gaya”. I was talking to Sunita in English and saying “I think we should bring education here first, food they are managing, they should develop respect for each other to live a happier life, a more meaningful life and a life out of which they can get something more”
We started talking to the kids. What do you all do? What do all the elders do? There was a pause, as we repeated our question. The evening cold breeze blowing was a silence in the ears. A boy looking blankly ahead and then at us said “maangte hain, sab maangte hain” (beg, everyone begs) The way he said, these words will echo in my mind for times to come. I could identify with the tinge of hesitation and the strong desire to say it too and the inevitability of saying it. I had got my answers.
A group of beggar families, discarded from everywhere, settled in an isolated open space, with the very next moment uncertain as they could be evacuated by the administration anytime(labourers are given time and place to resettle). In such life, how could culture, custom, tradition find space. I did not find their behavior wrong at all. The whole society does it in a more sophisticated and respected manner ie snatching, pouncing, manipulating/marketing gimmiks – they were all doing it in a basic and crude manner. For them it was daily survival.
Sunita asked “why do you beg?”. The boy said “kya karenge, gareeb hain”(what can we do, we are poor). With no other skill set or opportunity, begging would mean the difference between an empty stomach or a full stomach.
One question was still pending. What to do? How to do?
The boy was looking blankly ahead. I could see he had thoughts/dreams of possibility in his eyes. He said “aap khaana mat laao idhar”(don’t bring food here). “aap khaana mat laao idhar” he repeated “aap hame padhaao”(you educate us). A child for whom ‘a full stomach’ was a remote possibility everyday was saying that he didn’t want food, he wanted to study.
I had got my answers. I had got my hope. I had got my Asha.
This is what I plan to work on now.
‘Asha’ – ‘hope’ is like those childrens lives. Uncertain. We don’t know whether we will find them if we go there tomorow. But till the time we do find them let us work on ‘hope’-‘asha’.
