He comes daily with a zeal and is chirpy and talkative. He has a rickshaw which he loves to maintain and decorate, the best part being that on the front wheel his faith is enshrined – his devotion to Lord ‘Shiva’ – a small mannequin that he found near a Peepal tree which someone had put. He just felt a strong connection when he saw his God laying idle near the Peepal tree and made the statue tied to the front wheel of his daily mode of transport and living – his scrap trolley!
“I love the people of this city
when they call me by my name “Deepu”, sometimes they misspell it as ‘Deepa…which
changes my entire genre, he speaks with a smile” …I am alone in this city and
live with my cousin brother and his family – his parents live near my home in
our native village in Bihar!”
As I had already observed his talkative
stance, everyday. I make it a point that his zeal captivates me in the morning saga. Delhi
of today is full of neighborhood who are conservative and reticent and living a
secluded life, the changing dimension of this city is nerve wrecking sometimes,
the old neighborhood have sold-off their properties due to burgeoning clout of
builder flats and skyrise apartments, they preferred to reallocate themselves
to satellite towns like Gurgoan and Noida…Delhi has indeed changed…
Also, the type of work he is
into, he has to focus to keep moving, Imagine fetching daily scrap for more
than 100 odd households, almost stepping 4 floors up and down with out a lift
for some of them, combined with ongoing Delhi weather, it indeed turns out to
be an arduous task to achieve…. He does all this without any downtrodden inkling
as he tells me “ Bhaiya, I came here empty handed and without any job and have
to remain unemployed for quite some time, this is the first ‘Job’ I got and I have
to honour it… this is just the beginning for me!” – Indeed, I said, keep on
working Deepu, you never know what life might offer you in coming times…there
are enumerable such examples who started from scratch and just by sheer jest of
their hard work achieved much….hearing this, he took away with him two things –
first , a sense of honour that being a trashmen he still have people talk to
him while many of us would desist doing so! And second, that there is little
sense of belonging towards him from households he daily visits to keep all our
vicinity and our household clean and tidy…. “Thanks Deepu, you are the man of the
day!” …
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