E-Paper
A requiem for innocence
AFTER THE long dry summer, the monsoon brings welcome relief for many, but the season which restores greenery and ends the scorcher is a trying season for shoe-shine boys.
AFTER THE long dry summer, the monsoon brings welcome relief for many, but the season which restores greenery and ends the scorcher is a trying season for shoe-shine boys.
Neither do they get customers nor can they enjoy the weather with a free mind, as they toil doubly hard to eke out a living from morning to late evening.
These boys with bags in their hands can be spotted on railway platforms every day. The bag contains a few shoe polish bottles and brushes to shine the shoes of their customers.
The railway administration is quite cooperative to them. They are not supposed to take platform tickets to roam there in search of customers. They also enjoy the privilege of boarding any of the trains without taking the passenger’s ticket in search of customers. Ordinarily, none of the railway staff objects to their barding the train. They get down at convenient stations to catch the other train going homewards.
Sadly, most of these teenaged boys spend the golden period of their life as shoe-shine boys and land into a world of gloom and frustration after three years.
During their business ventures, they come across notorious men, specially gangs operating in trainsand quite often, become members of these gangs.
Ironically, the Sarvashiksha Abhiyan has failed to catch up with them. Every year the month of July comes and passes by, leaving them unaffected. No NGO or government official bothers to get them admitted to schools to ensure a better future for them.
They learn the lessons of life in a hard and sometimes cruel way, on platforms, in sub-ways and in train compartments, which are more than a school for them.
