Just a little could do a lot

The evacuation of the emigrants from the manapatiparambu is by and large a major violation of human rights.The complaints of the residents is genuine and a solution for the menace was a must but before voluntry action a thought should have been given to the little children who are not defaulters and could not be blamed for the state they are in.They are temporary settlers and if not in one place they would make it somewhere else in the city.The authorities need to take stringent steps to either ban them from entering our state or make an arrangement to settle them in certain areas with all the basic amenties so that they do not become a nuisance to the surrounding or a setback to a developing city like kochi.Education for their children should be given due importance so that the coming generation could bring about a change ending to their prevailing nomadic era. My first encounter with these nomad kids had really taken away my heart, I am a teacher of the poor and not satisfied with the little I was doing for these poor state school going children,I took my overwhelming and sympathising heart to an orphanage to impart my little knowledge of english and hindi to those destitue kids on week ends,still not satisfied I went out in search of other fields when murugan the social activist told me about the need of clothes for the nomad kids of manapatiparambu and I took on my heels immediately collecting good and wearable dresses from neighbours, and one fine day accompanied by my son went to give it out to them.At the sight of the packets in our hands,children and women gathered around and began to grab leaving less chance for a healthy distribution.In between all the hazzle, my mobile got lost and getting it back was a dead hope, still we gave it a chance and went back to the blue and yellow sheds and saw the children running towards us with my mobile in their hand, I was taken aback by shock and a senior women who followed the kids, came to me saying 'you had come to do a good deed so we owe this back to you' .I was overwhelmed and thanked them.Thus, began my visits to this dirty,filthy and unhygeniec area where nobody even bothered to turn and look. Trying to know and read the minds of these children,sitting under the heat of their plastic sheds and bearing with the unbearable stink, i could manage for only an hour holding their little fingers and taking them to the beautiful world of alphabets.At seeing me the elder boys of 6 and 7 would run to their respective sheds to get into better clothes and they would clean the ground to put a chair for me and then try to ease me from the burning heat by fanning from both my sides.I blessed them in my heart with tears in my eyes. My aim was to convince their parents that i was there for good because they were often afraid of strangers,whether it was for documentaries or films,every other person to them was from the authorities to evict them.They lived exactly like refugees from the riot hit areas whose hearts took a skip even at a slight alarm.It could be a bark of a dog or even the sound of an owl,they always kept alert.They are humanbeings and did possess hearts and minds like all of us.They do not wish to live like the way they are in,but they have no choice.Now when they were being evacuated people from no where appeared calling themselves social-activists and maseehas of the poor,who never once turned and had a look at their filthy and pathetic living style,or ever tried to give a thought as to how should we bring about a change to cleaning the place through a resolute means and not by devastaion or destruction.The children Irfaan,ruksaar,rehmat,Imraan,shivan and many others who had greeted me always with a sparkle in their eyes and smile on their faces must have pained and cried wiith empty stomachs.I am painfully visualising the evacuation scenes which could be only called inhuman.I am in search of those sparkling eyes which must have faded for not being able to attend the ‘patshalla’ conducted by a one-man NGO who from his own pocket had arranged an auto to pick up a few bigger boys as early as 7 a.m and reach to this "patshalla",where this kind soul kept oil,soap,towel and even dress so that these children could be cleaned first and then be taken to the fairyland of alphabets.He then feeds them with food brought from his home and may be that was the only one time good meal those few could get in a whole day.They showed me text books of hindi and read to me poems taught by their sir-ji with utmost pride.Irfaan wanted to become a pilot,and imraan a driver.Before their little world of dreams I sat thinking how very blurred was my dream of bringing about a change in their lives.