[Reader-list] Home Truths: The highs and lows of street life

Tue Apr 4 16:50:29 IST 2006

Chap 2: Home Truths: The highs and lows of street life

They see it being done in films; they see grown ups do
it; they see their peers do it- they try it, and get
hooked. 
Days pass by in a deluge of surrealistic dreams,
lost souls wafting in psychedelic streams

Little 6 years olds lying about with vacant eyes,
white streaks across their faces, disinterested and
dazed. What is that ? you ask. They smirk:
Solution,didi! 
Where do you get it from?, What do you do with
it?. All too eagerly they tell all- this 2 pack
bottle of whitener fluid costs them Rs 20-22 and is
available easily off the counter at many shops in the
old city area. One bottle contains a white fluid, the
other a transparent spirit like clear substance. First
they take in the white fluid, by wetting shirt corners
or pieces of cloth with the white substance. Then they
soak the cloth with the spirit like substance and suck
and drift off to other horizons. How it must be
affecting their body is only ones guess. They
complain of stomach ache, one had almost lost his
voice. You ask  Ye kyon lete ho?(Why do you take
this) ; a grin appears on those white streaked faces-
aadat ho gaye hai, didi- all our friends take it,
it helps us forget our troubles- they have ready
answers at their finger tips.. 
Out of the money they earn daily, they spend half to
1/3rd on solution. The 10 year olds and 15 year olds
have bidis, cigarettes and gutka as well in their
kitty. The 21-24 year olds graduate to smack, charas,
ganja- which they announce with pride in front of the
awe- struck little ones. 
So do you study, nahin didi; Have you thought
about what you want to do when youve grown up, have
you thought about your future; abhi kuch nahin socha
didi. 
Little frogs in the well- even if they think of coming
out, they slip back into nonchalance every so easily. 
Once in a while a rarity comes along, a frog who has
managed to come out of the well. Proud, thoughtful,
with some degree of resolve in his eyes- Mangal,
Archit to name a few such faces. All the kids shout
about the hero-Didi, ye solution nahin leta! You
hope fervently he doesnt fall back into the well
again.
The other little well froggies are losing not only
their health but also precious years- too dazed or
disinterested under the temporary high to attend
classes half the time, or learn vocational courses, -
the efforts of many NGOs to bring enthusiasm and hope
back into their lives falls flat in front of this
whitener fluid monster. Many of them dont or wont
find work half the time because of the monsters
spell. 
And this is not just a localized source of addiction,
restricted to Delhi or the northern belt. One of the
kids who had gone with an NGO to Chennai for a
workshop was so excited by the fact that the children
at the Chennai railway station were also having
solution, that he wrote about it in an article for the
NGO newspaper. 
Substance abuse out of free choice is of course
different from unwittingly getting caught and being
pushed into the well. Many of the little ones who beg
at red lights or at Sakets and Priyas and other such
complexes are caught in such devious cycles. Local
goons get them hooked onto solution or any other drug.
They got out and beg, come back and give the money to
the goon in exchange for some ______(I am finding it
increasingly difficult to come up with names and ways
of expressing addictive substances)
If such are the highs of street life what of the lows,
one might ask. Well- what is the worst possible thing
that could happen to a child-any child? The dark fear
of every parent, the silent secret in every other
family- if it happens to children who have the
protection of their homes and families what would be
the plight of some little ones out on their own in a
city. The answer--- it becomes a part of their life. 
I once asked a social worker how many street children
manage to escape physical abuse while living on the
streets and she replied- None, in my opinion. 
So yes, it happens- an older street boy catches an
innocent wide eyed waif; a nasty doped out rickshaw
puller offers shelter to a lost little drifter. Very
few get rescued and as they grow older, some smirk
about it, some do it to newer waifs, some out of
loneliness and boredom do it for pleasure and some out
of desperation and indifference do it for money.
(Forgive me for substitution what the kids call galat
kaam with it but I dont wish to unnecessarily
sensationalize the write up with words which tend to
catch the eye and hence the write up gets read- any
how an oft repeated word loses its meaning)
Many children end up staying with their abusers for a
long time, (out of convenience, fear, dependence,
habit or any other reason )which may have tremendous
implications on their psychology. 
Some areas in Delhi are notorious for what happens to
children there- Jama Masjid being one of them. The
ground in front of Jama Masjid at night is packed with
people involved in the physical trade- bedding is let
out at a paltry sum of Rs 20 and the dark sky provides
its own privacy. 
Hanuman Mandir (CP) is said to be inhabited by those
children who are attached to some adult for whatever
reasons. 
The girls who run away from home and get adopted by
families, (that being a common happening as mentioned
in the last post), may sometimes get trapped in A
social worker once narrated an incident of a bright
young girl around 14 years old who stayed with a
family near Jama Masjid, and the lady of the house
would drug her every night and while she slept,
solicit clients who would then satisfy themselves with
her. Many others get married off to old men, many get
sold when they reach a ripe young age- within the four
walls of the house and in the name of established
relationships a lot can happen which can leave social
workers feeling helpless  because they either never
get to know or get to know too late.

Another so called stigma attached with children is
that of homosexuality.
Many times I have come across statistics about how
80%-90% street children practice homosexuality. But
before we take in the impact of such statistics have
we ever wondered about the reasons why. Consider the
situation-Young adolescent boys, living away from
home, not in touch with their mother or sisters, with
little female influence in their lives, facing hard
and stressful times, some having suffered abuse, and
being at an age when sexuality is a paramount mental
concern; WILL tend to form strong bonds of
companionship with each other. Without wanting to stir
a hornets nest; Id like to point out that this
happens in other comparable circumstances- like among
soldiers posted in field areas, among cowboys grazing
sheep on high mountains 

.(thats all I could get out
of the film, anyway..,).

The reason for both the last post and this one is to
potray a sketch of what are the different aspects to
street life. Now we will start focusing on
individual pockets of Delhi. 

I have two bogs on which i shall begin posting
pictures by next week.

http://foggyfroggie.blogspot.com/
http://angelonhigh.wordpress.com/newblog/545170/

Coming up: 
Chap3 : Dargah se station tak: Nizamuddin ke bachche

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