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Opinion
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| HOW DID I FIND SUPPORT, MY FRIEND? WRITTEN BY ASHOK RAINA | | | | How did I find support, my friend? But laughing is not allowed. The kind of support I received after my displacement was truly unique and would evoke a sense of wonder in anyone. In the context of my life, amidst the thorns, stones, and bushes on the sandy ground, I had significant interactions with snakes, lizards, colorful birds, insects, frogs, and other small creatures. I realized that their behavior is better than humans. If humans could forge such friendships with these communities in the future, life would be incredibly beautiful and joyful. My experience is that those who claim to be the guardians of humanity have never allowed me to live in peace, nor have they allowed me to stand on my own feet.
If I tell you the story midway, you might find it quite amusing, but the truth is, after my displacement, the provisions the government made for my survival like other displaced people were as follows: according to government documents, I was supposed to receive 300 grams of rice daily(That too if the department does the weighing and measuring properly) apart from this 66 grams of flour (which disappeared from the ration depots after 2014), While displaced communities like me have been receiving 8.5 grams of sugar per day since 1990.
Beside above all this you make known that Since 2012, every displaced uprooted citizen like me has been receiving a cash allowance of 108 rupees per day (of which at least 1100 rupees is spent on cooking gas, and the remaining money is not even enough to heat a cup of tea). The remarkable thing is that this government assistance is supposed to cover our education in schools, clothing, and other expenses too.
To delve deeper into the story, I want to return to the main point and focus your attention on it.
When I suddenly found myself entangled in a situation that violated basic human decency, getting out of it amidst all the chaos seemed incredibly difficult. I still admire and commend myself for the way I quickly devised a plan to escape from that predicament.
When the first night, shrouded in dense darkness, passed with strong winds and gusts, and dawn was approaching, the driver sitting next to me said, "Sir, you have to get off at the next stop. Please be careful while getting off." The strange thing was that the entire area was unfamiliar to me, and I didn't even know where they were dropping me off. Secondly, I had no idea where I was supposed to go next in the dead of night.
After just a few moments, the car stopped at the next unfamiliar intersection, and as soon as I stepped out and put my feet on the road, my legs felt wobbly. I couldn't see properly due to the distress, and all I could feel on the side of the road was dirt and sand. Waiting until morning was necessary, but on the other hand, I was also struggling with sleepiness.
A little distance away, by the side of the road, I spotted a large, flat stone, which I chose as a place to rest. And I still remember clearly how that stone began to provide me with support in that rocky and unfamiliar place to go ahead for the life mission.
You can imagine for yourself what it's like to sleep on a stone by the roadside, amidst dense fog and on cold winter days in a state of restlessness until dawn.
Only my heart knew what it was like to spend moment after moment in an unfamiliar place by the roadside during the winter days. After all, no one has ever stopped the rotation of the earth; sunrise was bound to happen as time progressed. But I was a stranger, and the unfortunate situation was that I didn't even know where I was supposed to go next.
Suddenly, my eyes, which had been closed due to the intense cold, opened, and I saw that my entire body was covered in mud. Looking around, I realized there wasn't even any way to wash my face nearby. Please don't laugh at how I must have looked that day.
The place where I spent the night in the fog was a deserted place for me. I closed my eyes and tried to stand up, and I could hear the sound of vehicles, but I couldn't tell which direction the cars were going or where they were headed.
Finally, a double bended old man was found passing on the other side of the edge of the road. I approached him on the way to the station of a nearby city. He was a very kind and compassionate man who took me with him and dropped me off at the nearest town.
A new environment surrounded me, and the harsh rays of the sun began to torment me. The lifestyle I was accustomed to seemed completely alien. Despite trying to stay in the shade, I was constantly thirsty. The situation had become such that I felt like I was suffocating repeatedly.
The day was difficult to get through in one way or another, but the question of where to spend the night kept nagging at me. All around there were only thorny bushes, and the hot, sharp stones were digging into my feet.
During those days, the government was setting up clothing distribution camps for displaced people in various places, and that's when I decided to stay in one of those camps.
Based on my experiences over the past 35 years, and this might surprise you, snakes, lizards, frogs, and birds are better than humans. They climb trees at dawn and wake us with their sweet songs, and they never tamper with humanity's future.
My entire life has been spent amidst the beauty of nature and its creatures, but when it comes to humanity, it presents a rather astonishing picture. Corruption, discrimination, oppression, cruelty, neglect, human rights violations, usurpation of rights, plunder, and scandals—they are masters at committing one atrocity after another. Therefore, they are devoid of good deeds, morality, and meaningful action and I also become the victim of corruption, and discrimination.
(The author of this article is Ashok Raina editor of daily Northern Times )
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