The Protagonist: Raju (Part 1)

In the dingy suburbs with cloistered colonies, surrounded with dirt and waste dumping grounds, lived Raju! The budding child actor was although unaware of the potential that lay within. Being a typical slum dweller, he had a rather ramshackle living. His abode lay in one of the numerous convoluted pathways that may appear as a cobweb for us city dwellers.

So what was peculiar in the life of this slum-dweller. Actually nothing!

A normal day in Raju’s life meant waking up after mother’s chordless continuous rants, carrying out ablutions around the railway track, washing himself in the lone hand-pump that existed and running to school. Well! School was a new entry to the daily chores… only after mid-day-meal scheme and guarantee of books and school uniform was given by the government. So no prizes for guessing the amount of passion these children had for studies, the passion also made stronger by the fact that only two teachers existed in the Class1-4 school. Let’s leave the school in its condition and concentrate on the subject of our story.

Raju loved school because he found an audience there for the mimicry acts. When teacher wasn’t around Raju would enact his favorite punch line “Kitne Aadmi the?” in pure Amzad Khan’s style, and receive applause from colleagues (sometimes thrashing from a teacher). The evening was spent loitering around, culminating in few tight slaps from his mother. Well! Nothing to feel bad about as this was supposed to be a daily schedule. The father returned home late night, after toiling hard and spending the hard earned dimes in the local wine store. The return was never a sober one, although it varied from sometimes a “singing and swaying one” to a familiar and more abusive one. But did it really matter?

For the parents Raju was the only comfort. Comfort… as he was assumed to be a temper venting machine; therefore a slap, slang or a kick had become a part of his life. What he must be feeling?

Feelings and emotions belong to the upper and middle strata of society, what mattered most to Raju was two meals a day, a place to sleep and some entertainment like mimicry and kabaddi during the day. The rest was a price that had to be paid for these luxuries of life….

Comments

Anonymous said…
Must say..you are getting better day by day :)
waiting for part 2 ...
March 25, 2009 at 9:53 PM
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