Saturday 15 September 2012

Ramu the Hawker


                                                    

 

Mummy are the bajji’s ready there will be many people in the beach now, “I said.

And my mummy shouted back by saying,” be-ta don’t worry the bajji’s are ready but before u reach the beach visit the hanuman temple and pray for good luck.

I looked at the wall where my Grandfather and granny’s picture hung with garlands and I said please guide me through these difficult times. I took the basket of bajji’s placed them on my head and ran towards the hanuman temple, prayed and gave some money for the prasad. I reached the beach as I usually do when its overcrowded with people.

Before I tell u the incident that changed my life that day let me introduce myself, my name is Ramu and I am 14 years old from a very poor family background originally from Gujarat living in Mumbai. I left my school when my dad was arrested because he got himself drunk and started beating people around him. I live with my mom who works as a worker in a rich merchant’s house and I help her everyday by selling the bajji’s .We get enough food with the help of the ration card though it’s twice a day ,we are contended with the things we have. Now let’s get back to the incident that happened that day.


As usual I was shouting that day,”Bajji’s, bajji’s, bajji’s  panch bajji’s dus rupee “.

Bajji’s, bajji’s, bajji’s  panch bajji’s dus rupee ,I repeated again and again some people bought it others ignored as usual. Like this I walked the whole Jihu beach six to seven times for four hours until the bajji’s in my basket almost got over. My legs ached so I sat down on the sand ,counted my money I had collected which was Rs.230 and I starting blabbering about my life, condemning it and as usual I started comparing myself with other children’s I saw in the beach. As I was looking around at the people in the beach, I suddenly noticed a boy about 6 years old crying aloud and the people around him started gathering and started asking him where his parents were? or why he was crying?. I got curious because he seemed familiar but I couldn’t remember where I had seen him, so I started moving towards him but before I could reach there he got up and ran away getting away from the crowed. I don’t know why but I started running behind the boy with the basket on my head. At the end he stopped near a shop and again started crying, this time I could see him clearly then I suddenly noticed that the boy was the son of the rich merchant in whose house my mother was working, I couldn’t tell it for sure because I have seen him only in a photo with my mother which she once brought home. I sat beside him and I told the people gathering around him that I knew him, they left after that. Now, I slowly asked the boy, “where’s your daddy?”, he didn’t reply so I turned around thinking for myself what I should do then I saw my basket I found there were still four bajji’s, I took them and offered them to the boy which he reluctantly took it and ate it. After thinking for a while I decided to take the boy to my house so I could confirm that he was the son of the merchant since my mother knew him very well before I could take him to the police.

I was holding the boy’s hand while we were walking towards my home (the boy wouldn’t even tell his name and after a lot of persuasion I made him agree to come home at least). We reached home but to my surprise the house was locked, my mother always came before me so I didn’t care about carrying a key. I sat with the boy on a rock asking him questions for which I never got answers; I felt an irritation filling my head so I was about to shout at him when I suddenly heard my mother’s voice. I turned back and saw my mother then suddenly I saw the boy running towards her and hugged her. My mother took him inside the house without saying anything then looked at me and said, ”son in this world nothing is fair even if we have money”. I didn’t understand it because I didn’t know the basis of her saying so I looked at mother who was cuddling the boy and asked her, “What happened to merchant she was working with?”.


My mother put the boy to bed and made some phone calls with the pay phone near the house after which she came inside the house, sat near me and said,” do you remember the politician who came to our house and gave us Rs.500, now he is a MLA and he is planning to open the biggest mall in Mumbai in the place where the merchant’s mall is situated, the merchant didn’t agree obviously since the mall was his family treasure. But the politician took the matters by sending gunda’s and by other means to disturb the merchants life but the merchant didn’t give in. Then one day the merchants only child, Sherlyn was kidnapped by the politician’s men.”

I was shocked by hearing the story then I asked my mother whether the boy sleeping in the bed was Sherlyn.

My mother slowly nodded telling me that he was Sherlyn.

Then my mother said to me ,”be-ta don’t sleep, his parents will be coming now”.

His parents came home about 12 AM took him and went away. I sat whole night thinking about the incident and in the morning I went to the beach selling the bajji’s, I couldn’t stop thinking about the incident that caused the kidnapping so I decided to visit the place where the merchant’s mall was situated in the day.

When I reached the mall, it was crowded with people. I looked everywhere with amazement and suddenly I felt a hand touching my shoulder, I turned around and to my surprise it was the merchant. He smiled at me, then he took my hand and he led me towards a restaurant where we sat and he told me to eat anything I like. Then I narrated my part of the story to him and at the end he said ,”the position my family are in now is just because of the people who gave us difficult time during which we suffered, people are scared when competitors exist but one thing everyone should realise that only during difficult times we that is humans strive to become the better person ,so partially my achievements go towards them also”. After saying that he smiled at me and said ,”will u look after my son when u are in the school”.