All the three are aimless wanderers with no way specific to go, ask them where they are heading to, in all probability you will get a two word answer “Don’t know!” – as obvious, they have not much pressure to perform, nor do they have grand dreams to accomplish, but for sure they want to be a happy lot and enjoying each passing day as it comes.
May be life have different designs
for all of three school dropouts, as I spot them earnestly searching something
amid the shrubs, they may have found something interesting to put their
attention on. Hearing my sudden voice, they became attentive only to find that
it was a friendly tone and the purpose of it was to give them something of daily
use to them. Their face cheer up with a gentle smile though they still have a
perceptible doubt, which stands obvious. As I try to converse with them about
their life and daily living, they reluctantly share their name and whereabouts
and where they actually come from.
I don’t know if the information
they give me, first of all they share their name as “Mahesh”,”Ravi” and “Sanatan”.
That they were school friends astonished me as their appearance didn’t look
like they had ever seen a classroom. I for sure knew they were lying and on
pondering the eldest one speaks up gently “ Bhaiya, we have left school as we didn’t
like education and the discipline of school!” – to dire consequences that they
may now face in life, I tried to convince them to revisit their judgement but a
laugh closed the scope of further discussion on the topic.
On further prodding, they tell me
that they are good friends and that they live in the same vicinity, a slum
nearby and that their parents are ragpickers and are not at home as they leave
early and come late. This gives them the opportunity to act like loafers throughout
the day as they love loitering around without any purpose. Asked if who gives
them food to eat during the day, they smile again and blushingly tell me that
they sometime ‘Beg’ on red lights nearby.
I asked if they could be admitted
to a school whereby, they would get free books and breakfast along with
afternoon meal, will they be comfortable? Their eyes sparkled with an distinct
smile , they were ready to take that leap, something was surely brewing in my
mind as I gave them this proposal.
As we have interchanged some
information, I could ask them few more questions but before that I observe
that one of them is quite shy and would
hardly speak, but he is utmost attentive of my intentions, I liked him the
most, as I spot him to be subtle and observant, I doubt he would open up with
many strangers as he did to me.
I ask them if I could be their
friend and that are they regular to park, they did say yes though I doubted
their hasty answer, as they were reluctant to speak more, our quick conversation
was getting to its culmination, as we bid ‘bye-bye’ and with a commitment to
meet again the next day, I kept on thinking about future of these street urchins.
The vicious circle of poverty has enveloped their life completely and they or
their parents are not in a position to come out of it.
I surely had a plan for them to achieve basic elementary education as I rang up someone close who runs an NGO for such kids – as I was quite hopeful for a positive answer which did come, the next day was the day I was waiting for the three to appear. As expected, they didn’t as they didn’t wanted to be bounded by life’s discipline or daily regularity – may be they wanted to wander as free birds and have got used to the daily living which circumstances have bestowed on them, but still for me the search continues…
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