3000 Beggars saved, and still counting

But trying to help professional beggars can create problems, say Dominic

D’Souza and Bharat Unadkat  

Ketan Tanna | TNN  
   Beggars in Mumbai, like warlords, are deeply territorial. Each has his or her own traffic light, patch on the pavement, platform corner. You see them every day in the same filthy clothes, maimed, bandaged, with empty bowls and maggot-covered bodies. This wretched sight, which fails to move millions hurrying to swipe their cards before the office deadline, are the target of kindness of two men.

   Dominic D’Souza and Bharat Unadkat are as unlike as chalk and cheese when it comes to their backgrounds but they are united by their mission to pick destitutes off the road. Terminally-ill cancer patients are taken to Bandra’s Shanti Avedna or to Tata Memorial Hospital. The old are taken to ashrams like Paramshanti Dham in Taloja or Jeevan Asha in Andheri.

Leprosy patients are taken to Muktjeevan in Aasangaon, handicapped people to Helpers of the Handicapped in Kolhapur or Sharan in Vashi, and the Paraplegic Foundation in Sion gets the paraplegics. The ashrams run by Mother Teresa Foundation pitch in as and when required. There are many others and the list is long, says D’Souza. Since 1994, when he has kept a diary, the tally of those the two have helped has touched 3,000.

   D’Souza, a 38-year-old Goan Roman Catholic, was working as a Shanti Avedna volunteer in 1991. On his way to mass one day, he saw a bundle huddled in a blanket near Don Bosco Church in Matunga. “He was not begging, just lying on the road. He was not asking for help either but something in me said he needed help. He said he would like tea. But the vendor refused to give a glass because he said his customers would not want to use the same glass. I was in a hurry so I took a largish leaf from a nearby tree, folded it into a cup and poured the tea in it.’’ D’Souza went on to hear mass but could not forget the man. He went back to look for him but he was gone.

   Some days later, by some uncanny coincidence, Unadkat brought the same man to Shanti Avedna where D’Souza was volunteering. The home was meant only for terminal cancer patients but D’Souza helped him get admitted. They uncovered the blanket and saw a stinking wound crawling with maggots. D’Souza, now a telephone operator in Sion Hospital, recalls: “His name was Purshottam Kamble. He suffered from epilepsy and had had a bad fall that caused the injury. I can never forget the wound.’’ It was this incident that brought D’Souza and Unadkat, a 60-yearold retired businessman, together.

But rescuing beggars is tricky because professional beggars do not want to be rescued.

D’Souza, like a war-weary veteran, says he has to set parameters to differentiate between professional beggars and those who need help. “Those who are just sitting at one place and not begging, especially those who have a small water bottle and potli, need help. Professional beggars, on the other hand, can become wild if you try to help them. We have learnt many lessons,’’ he laughs.

   Donations keep trickling in. “We would initially try to take the rescued persons in a taxi but taxiwallahs would refuse. Someone donated an old Maruti 800 which soon conked and was replaced by a Maruti 1000,’’ D’Souza says. Expenses, besides the cost of transport, are minimal. “We have kept a helper on a small salary because persons with mental health problems require an attendant at many hospitals,’’ he adds.

   Both men are reluctant to talk about their work and refuse to be photographed. An NGO, Jeevan Jyot Cancer Relief and Care Trust, agreed to share an old set of photographs, showing Unadkat helping beggars in his old Padmini.

   (D’Souza can be contacted on 9967836904 and Unadkat on 9892818298.)
    ketan.tanna@timesgroup.com  HOW CAN I HELP YOU: This 1996 picture shows Bharat Unadkat talking to a beggar on a Mumbai street

Don’t close ranks, debate: Muslim scholar  

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Mumbai: The storm over the anti-Prophet Mohammad Danish cartoons might have subsided, but the debate rages on. A lot of people have still not reconciled to the fact that Muslims the world over, couldn’t see the cartoons as just an artiste’s freedom of speech and expression.
   However, Mahmood Mamdani, who teaches anthropology and political science at Columbia University (USA), has somehow internalised it in his own way. Unlike the two extreme camps who see the cartoons either as an affront on Islam or an artiste’s right to expression, Mamdani favours an informed debate on the issue. And he debated it on Saturday before a motley audience of writers, activists and journalists at Indian Merchants Chamber in Churchgate.

   Facilitated by Citizens for Peace, an initiative against communal and sectarian violence, Mamdani touched upon several issues like bigotry, blasphemy, fatwas and the rights of minorities in his scholarly presentation. He sees the Danish cartoons as a provocation against minorities.
   “When I first saw it, I knew it was targeted against the Muslim minorities in Denmark. The fact that the same right-wing newspapers had earlier declined to publish Jesus cartoons proved the papers wanted to offend the Muslims,’’ he said.

“Some local mullahs tried to sort it out with the Danish authorities, but failed. And then they went to Saudi Arabia which took it up because it considers itself as the custodian of the faith,’’ added Mamadani who has authored several books, including the critically-acclaimed Good Muslim, Bad Muslim.
   The growing Islamophobia in the West, Mamadani suggested, should be seen as an opportunity to initiate dialogues and debates. “We need to open the ranks, not close them. We need to debate issues,’’ he said.
   Replying to a question, he said that colonisation always came with noble intentions, but gradually degenerates into oppression. “The West has used this method for the last five centuries. The colonisers first arrive with a civilising mission. That’s what they had done even in India,’’ said Mamdani who is married to film-maker Mira Nair and divides his time between New York and Kampala (Uganda).
   Referring to the business of fatwas, Mamdani said fatwas were mere opinions and Muslims were not bound to follow them. “You can have different fatwas on a single issue.

Many people manipulate to get favourable fatwas,’’ he said. Activist-author Rajni Bakshi, scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali, Mira Nair and Javed Anand of Muslims for Secular Democracy were among those who attended the meet.

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Mumbai:

     At first glance, the rows of models, charts and paintings that have been displayed in Dadar’s Wadia Vachha School seem to be part of a routine exhibition put up by students. Not so, however. Senior members of the Parsi community have gathered to host a three-day exhibition on the Zoroastrian religion, which begins on Sunday. 

   It is the followers of Kshnoom, the mystic offshoot of Zoroastrianism, who have taken it upon themselves to acquaint the younger generation of the community with their roots. A similar exhibition was organised last year at the neighbouring Palamkote Hall, albeit on a bigger scale for that was the centenary year of the Kshnoom movement.

   Kshnoom is to Zoroastrianism what Sufism is to Islam. The word appears in the holy book and literally translates as “the ecstasy that is derived from knowing the scriptures’’. Its followers believe Kshnoom is the only key to understanding the religion.
   “It was a century ago that a native of Surat, Behramshah Shroff, brought home the message of mysticism after a trip to Iran.

He had imbibed the truth of Kshnoom from the seers of that country with whom he lived for three long years,’’ says senior lawyer and Kshnoom scholar Kaikhushru Dastur. Interestingly, it was 25 years after his return to India that the reticent Shroff revealed his interpretation of the scriptures at a common debate in the neighbourhood fire temple. 

   Of course, the exhibition is open to all Parsis as the organisers do not seek to impose their beliefs. Drawing inspiration from the Zend Avesta and the holy scriptures, as well as by making up little stories on their own, the elders have made best use of the small space. 

   Meticulously laying out the white tablecloths so that not a single crease is visible, an elderly volunteer then proceeds to arrange a series of paintings that depict the seven “charms” of Zoroastrianism. 

   “The paintings have been especially created by Amar Chitra Katha artist Ram Waeerkar. Each frame tells a story explaining the importance of emblems like the holy fire, the ‘sudreh’ and ‘kushti’ which the Parsis wear, the rituals, prayers and scriptures,’’ says California resident Silloo Mehta, who has conceived and executed this project.

   On the adjacent table are placed yellow, weather-beaten copies of the ancient scriptures, which Mehta procured on one of her regular trips to Iran.

   Last month, she bundled palmsized models of witches, gnomes and angels into her suitcase to bring back to India for this exhibition. Now, as she arranges them under 12 different subject heads, Mehta wishes “modern youngsters’’ understood the significance of preserving the bloodline by marrying into the community, or why it is necessary to preserve the traditional method of Dokhemenashini over opting for cremation or burial.

   If only they would stop by, they might be impressed.
   toireporter@timesgroup.com   

There are many selfless activists all over India. Mostly below the horizon. Here are a  few. 

Lawyer with a heart rabir Kumar Das

Bhubaneswar | At the Orissa high court bar in Cuttack, advocate Prabir Kumar Das watches out for the lost and underprivileged. He gives them a hearing and then offers to take up their case free of cost.

 “In my five years in the legal profession, I have taken up over 100 human rights cases. I am happy that in a majority of cases, the helpless victims have got relief,” Das says proudly. 

   His biggest victory perhaps came on August 20, 2007, when the HC ordered the government to pay Rs 8 lakh compensation to Pratap Nayak, a Dalit, who was imprisoned for 13 years, including eight years even after being acquitted by the HC.

“There is a drought of good souls in the legal profession. As a result, the most deserving don’t get justice because they are not able to hire a lawyer,” he says 

Highway lifeline : Subroto Das

Ahmedabad |      After being involved in as many as eight accidents, Subroto Das, 42, understands the trauma of accident victims. He has used that understanding to set up one of the most extensive accident helplines on India’s highways. 
   ‘‘In 1999, we survived the accident, but were stranded for nearly four hours without help. After going through such trauma, I decided to do something to help victims,’’ says this hospital management consultant from Vadodara.

   This led to the birth of Lifeline Foundation, a non-profit organisation. If you see the number 9825026000 flash by while you’re cruising on Gujarat’s highways, it is Das’s helpline making the difference.

Chandigarh | Balwant Singh Ramoowalia has become a beacon of hope for every Punjabi who has been duped by unscrupulous travel agents of lakhs of rupees painstakingly saved in the hope of starting a new life abroad.       He floated the Lok Bhalai Party in 1999 to take up all such causes, including of ‘holiday brides’ — girls who are wedded to visiting Punjabi NRIs and then dumped after the husbands go back. 

        In the last one-and-a-half years, he has managed to get Rs 1.5 crore returned to people who were duped by travel agents. His focus now is on an estimated 30,000 Indians, who are languishing in jails in other countries on charges of illegal immigration.

Government of West Bengal has been cowed down by a few fanatics. Today any one who can create chaos in the society, or even threaten to do so is heard and feared. 

Honest law abiding citizens are unheard.

This is because the governments of the day are not willing to face problems squarely and deal with perpetrators of crimes against society.

Taslima Nasreen’s case is an example of a government cowering in fear, unable to face bad guys. The same government has no problem bullying simple law abiding people. 

At last people of Kolkata have come out on the streets.

Saturday, December 22, 2007 (Kolkata)

In Kolkata, the friends and supporters of the Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen held a rally protesting the manner in which she had been confined by the government and demanding that the writer be allowed to return to the city she so loves. A month after central Kolkata erupted in violence over Taslima Nasreen, the message at a rally by the author’s friends and supporters is clear, ‘get her back’.Following the violence, Taslima was asked to leave the city, a move the rallyists interpret as humoring the fundamentalists.

Now lodged at a Delhi safe house, she was given an ultimatum by the Centre a couple of days ago that she wouldn’t be allowed to go to the City of Joy. No wonder, those rallying in her favour are far from happy.

One month to the day Park Circus in central Kolkata erupted in violence over the alleged offensive writings of Taslima Nasreen, the message at a rally by the author’s friends and supporters says they want her back.

”Taslima Nasreen is virtually a prisoner of the central government. She must be released and number two, fundamentalists have forced her out of Kolkata, she must be brought back to Kolkata,” said Dipankar Chakraborty, Secretary, ANIK.

Intellectuals fear that the Bengal government has set a bad precedent, which goes against the state’s social fabric.

”If the Hindus also demand the expulsion of some people because they consider some people anti national, what will happen? Just trouble will break out, it may lead to communal trouble also. They are playing with fire,” said Swajan, Member, Bibhash Chakarborty.

In the past several months, Kolkata has been seeing many protests and this will go down as another one. But clearly the message here is not just for the state and central governments. It’s just as much for that segment of the Muslim community who have been protesting against Taslima Nasreen’s writings.

Bano Haralu, NDTV