MAHADEV AT COOPERAGE
‘ YAI HAI BOMBAY MERI - JAAN’
This is Mahadev the Newspaper seller at Cooperage crossing, Bombay.Selling ‘Mid-Day’, at 11.Behind his photo you can see the Statue Of ‘Rajiv Gandhi’, the PrimeMinister who talked of modern India! perhaps the dreamer of modern India! What an irony!Mahadev lives in Machhimar colony opposite the Badhwar park( where Kasab arrived with his gang). He has been selling newspapers since last thirty years. I could only ask his name, where he stays and the years he has been in this profession, before the green light appeared and I had to move. But Mahadev makes me think , his distinct cap gives him dignity.Indeed this city gives dignity to the downtrodden. People who are oppressed by the class and caste distinction in villages find freedom in this crammed city!
Mahadev struggles to sustain in South Bombay, from meagre earnings he may be able to save to have a cup of tea in the Persian restaurant at Wodehouse road sometimes or may be managing the ‘cutting chai’. Who would be there in his family? A son ! unemployed ? Would his wife be waiting in the evenings to muster his earning and plan the day(life) ahead? Is it possible that Mahadev would be busting his earnings in ‘country liquor’ neglecting his wife to fend for herself? I am certain sometimes he would be watching cinema at Eros or Regal sitting in the stalls enjoying ‘Buddha hoga tera baap’. That may depend on the sensation the ‘Mid-Day’ may create!
Will he be ever be able to go back to his village? To commit suicide! He is among the millions who have left their villages in Maharashtra so that now only 40% dwell in villages in the state- Yai Hai Bombay Meri Jaan!
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