Rohit! A Rich Scavenger

walking all alone.

lost!



dreams beneath the steps.



his cousins..

You can easily get some idea about what I am going to write here, you can see the name Rohit and yes his pictures too. Yes indeed I am going to write about Rohit here. I found him really interesting boy and no wonder I was feeling good about this little boy. Reading my words here, you will get to know about little Rohit and his world. I am glad I found him after several days of waiting and searching.

He was sitting at the corner of the construction site while on his way to Tinchuli, I found him eating something in a plastic. But I doubted if he is the one I have been waiting for. I got closer and closer. By the time, I was close enough to hear the sounds of chewing. It was him.

Rohit…. I voiced.

He looked at me in a disguise, didn’t say a word in reply. It didn’t matter to me because I was asking him random things.

Ho! ma Rohit ho; he replied later without any expression on his face.

Well this is Rohit. I got to know about the slum dogs place through him. But when I went to see him, I found out that he had left for India. Yes this is the same boy I have written in my previous article. I am very much glad I got him on the way to my office.

Rohit is a boy of 12. He is the youngest son of his family. He works hard like any man does to help his family to stand in the society. He is an example of any other ordinary man in this society making his walk to remember in his own best way.

Yes! I call him the man of his age. Instead of playing with his age around and gaining education in school, he is given duty of responsibilities to stand as backbone of the family and I am sure there are always reasons when certain situation appears.

He wakes up every early morning around 4 o’ clock and starts with duties onwards. He walks by the way of Boudha,Tinchuli, Jorpati, returning back from the phulbari way to his destination where he stores all the garbage in a place and sells them out every end of the month. He has an elder brother who is married and has two kids, is also engaged in same work. They have three times meal a day. Rohit mentioned that he likes playing with friends. He likes going to school like every other kids do. He watches a student who passes by us when he was talking about school and study. He loves laughing though he has very uptight face. So far I have not seen him laughing. He talks to the point thing, sometimes hard to believe a kid of 12 can be full of dull expressions. If you don’t talk to him, there will be like complete silent environment.

I am sure the navy oversize trouser was not really his. But he was wearing it so comfortably that it seemed he was fine with it. He had a green small size shirt with a cartoon character at front but it was badly faded. His feet show how hard he works. I took a picture of his feet when he was loitering around. We walked by the way of Tinchuli where he often comes and that’s where we first met actually.

Question! Why is Rohit here in Nepal?

With a dream to build a house of own, he travelled to Nepal from India to build a house. Rohit spends days, weeks and months here collecting money with his big brother. He said he wants to help his family to build a house of their own in India so that people won’t make his family feel down. He walks off the house early morning at 4 with his white sack every day just to give a roof for his family. He told me that he earns 20,000 rupees a month.  My eyes were wide opened. His brother collects all the money, and then they travel back to India time and again to deposit the money in a bank. Well this sounds really modernized.

Rohits gets 20 rupees a day from his sister in-law every day for his own uses. I asked the moment if he has the 20 rupees and how about offering me a glass of tea, I was pulling his leg. He smiled and said he has already spent it. My bad luck.L

He said, he was getting late and has to continue his work with his white sack. I handed him the things I had for him. He left with a smile on his face. And that smile was worth to see. With a smile on my face I said to myself; finally I met Rohit.

Smile to Life. J