STORYMIRROR

Pravinn Tripathi

Drama Others

2  

Pravinn Tripathi

Drama Others

Dying Hopes

Dying Hopes

10 mins
274


           Change is necessary for development as well as the growth of any country. Every developing country has changed a lot from the last 50 years. India is the fastest-growing country in the current era. The journey of the country’s post-independence is full of multiple changes and drastic development in every sector. That has changed everywhere and still, we are running behind changes in every moment in our life. Though this change is bringing new shape to country but at the same time it is digging a big gap between economical inequalities in country. We can see it in every sector of the country. We can see a bright and colorful city from sky but at the same time, we can encounter the plastic-covered non-repaired roofs of slums of the same city. The development is going on at the cost of a big destruction of humanity.

                      

This is story of Daya Chand who lives in Bandra, Mumbai. Don’t be confused, he is not a rich and wealthy but a poor porter. Actually he lives in a chawl in Bandra east. From long times, he use to make pots and lamps of earthen clay. He was there from last 15 years and having a good respect in the area as he always come up with good designing and reasonable prices. He has 3 kids, wife and old parents in his home town. With his hard work and dedication, he earns some money and feed his family in hometown. He has 2 daughters and one son and all are into study. He always tried to keep his children in good school for their better future in spite of all the troubles and difficulties faced by him every day.


                     As usual he was on the way to start his day. He has a small barrow which he fully load with his stuffs and goes to nearby areas. During evening, he sits on local market with his merchandise for sale. He was ready to go for the day’s work, in meanwhile somebody asked by his name.

                  “O daya bhai, you started so early today?” One person from his community asked.


                  “Yes Kamlesh ! Actually, Diwali is coming, so I am thinking to sell these small lamps little early and actually I have planned to go home this Diwali. So, I want to sell them as early as possible.” Daya replied with his planning in his mind.


                 “Yes good thinking, also festivals look good along with family only…..” Kamlesh said in his support.


                 “Yes Kamlesh, you are absolutely right. And also, it is almost 2 years when I last time went there. Elder daughter is in 10th this year and also son is asking for bicycle from long time. So, I was thinking, this time will go and celebrate Diwali along with everybody.” Daya replied in same voice.


                  “Hope so Daya bhai, I was thinking but let’s see…..”Kamlesh said in a less confident voice.


                 “Why? You also go home for some days. Pass some time with family. See, that is our motherland and nothing is beautiful than motherland. So, earn some extra money and plan for home this Diwali.” Daya persisted Kamlesh for going home during the festival.


                 “Huh, extra earning! That is the only concern. You know Daya bhai, the situation of work is really not very good. After sitting whole day in shop, hardly a few handful of customer comes and they also for part time job works like alteration, breading work etc. There was a time, when we use to be overburdened during festival times. There was always stitching job works of school uniforms and much more. But nowadays, everything is decreasing. People are moving towards readymade garments and school uniforms are provided by particular schools only. Nobody bothers to coming down to us for complete stitching job work. What we can say. The situation is going worst to worsen for us….” Kamlesh explained his pain with sorrowful eyes. Actually he has small business of tailoring. He is a tailor. Earlier days, he was only tailor in that area and so many residents come to him for their stitching needs. But now days, there is very less demand of people like him. His income reduced to very low level through his profession which is alarming for his future.


               “You are right Kamlesh, actually the English machines and china products are hitting we poor people badly. Sometimes they are cheaper also and easily available at malls and this new system called online…….Really they are killing us.” Daya replied in Support of Kamlesh.


             “Yes bhai, nothing to say. Let’s see how long we can try our luck here. Let’s go you are also getting late….” Kamlesh said with a depressed voice and they went for their work.


               Kamlesh went away with bit frustration in his eyes which was real and the same feeling was with Daya Chand but still he was hopeful with his plans. He knows that at least he can make some money and go to his home town on the occasion of Diwali. Let’s see the results of his hard work and confidence.


               It was the month of October and the weather of Mumbai was little pleasant. There was as usual typical Mumbai traffic on roads. Full of vehicles, noisy horns, small pea nut sellers roaming on roads etc. Daya was on his way to a residential society next to the red signal where a number of households resides who always use to buy earthen lamps from him on every occasion.


                “Hey bhaiya (brother) come for a while………….” A lady asked him for looking at his lamps.

                “Yes madam…..” He replied and went towards his gate.

                “How much cost of these bigger lamps?” She asked for pricing of lamps.


               “Madam, the bigger ones are Rs 10/pc and smaller are Rs 5/pc. That colorful one is Rs 25/pc.” Daya replied with hopeful voice.

                “Ok……….thank you” She said with a wired facial expression and preparing to go inside the gate.


               “What happens madam? How many pcs you want to buy? I could do some discount in pricing. Tell me what you want.”

Daya insisted again and again for selling of his lamps to that madam.


                 “Come next time, actually we decided to use Chinese lights this season. So, will decide later for buying of these earthen lamps…..Come next week.” She said and went away inside her society building.


                “Ok madam……..”Daya replied with a sad face and down eyes. He moved further into society.


                 Daya roam away many lanes of that society and another society adjacent to that but did not succeed as per his expectation. He met with several persons who were very much keen to buy those stuffs on social media but not in real. People use to write a number of speaches on social media for motivating their friends and colleagues for buying those made in India stuffs but not themselves. This is harsh reality of India. We love to give advice but not implement the same for ourselves. This is harsh reality of we people in modern India. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in society.” But I don’t think any of us follows his statement.


                It was around 3pm and Daya sat near a park by placing his barrow nearby safe place under shades of tree. He took some rest and opened his lunchbox and a 2 liters bottle of water. Daya always carries those thing with him only. After roaming almost half of the Day, he sold lamps values Rs 250 which was too lesser than his expectation. A lot of people promised him for buying later days but that was uncertain. Anyways, he finished his lunch and after rest for some times, he started again towards market. He was approaching other residential also coming on the way to market.


                Daya went away and reached to market where he used to sit at a place as per availability and sell his stuffs. But the result was same in second round of society visit. There was nobody to buy his stuffs. The market was big and in evening, there is huge crowd in that market. Daya was hopeful for some recovery from market. But again the same story, there was customer in market but not very much interested to buy his stuff. One customer said that those lamps carrying Daya was easily available in mall at cheaper prices. He didn’t know one fact that he could buy those lamps from mall at cheaper price but he can’t buy Daya’s best wishes which comes directly from his heart. That kind of person can’t understand that feeling of helping needy people like Daya because their whole life is a profit and loss statement who can waste huge amount on parties and drinks but not on buying some useful stuffs from people like Daya. This is harsh reality of today’s so called highly society.


              So, the day ended with very average income for Daya by selling his stuff. He was hopeful for next day and next week which was Diwali week because many other people also buys those stuffs during that time. Also he was hopeful for those ladies of society who promised him for buying next week. It is said, dedication and hard labor can do anything but these things were also looking ineffective in case of people like Daya and Kamlesh.


               With hope of earning desired money, Daya use to go different areas for the week time, but result was same. People has not more interest in tradition earthen lamps because they have multiple choices of lighting for festivals. There are different varieties of lights available in wholesale markets as well as online platforms. There are plastic lamps which are looking like ditto earthen lamps in terms of color, designing and shape with cost effectiveness. Earthen lamp needs hard work to burn but those plastic lamps automatically on by one switch. So, people don’t want to work on lighting traditional earthen lams because they don’t have that much of time. After all it is just a matter of 2-3 days, and nobody has time from their busy schedule to invest on burning earthen lamps.

        

     All the prospects of Daya become ineffective and he has unable to sell as per his requirements. Actually earlier years, there was high demands for those stuffs during festivals. But simultaneously, the demand for those thing started to decrease due to arrival of excessive Chinese stuffs in market and availability through online and malls. Daya was hopeful but end up with bit frustration in his depressed eyes. He couldn’t earn that much of money as he expected. Finally, he dropped his plan to going hometown and sent all his earned money to his wife for celebrating festival. He convinced her that due to some unexpected reasons, he wouldn’t coming to hometown but sent money for their celebration. Although the sum of money was not much more but sufficient enough for a poor family of Daya to celebrate a festival like Diwali.


           Like everywhere, Diwali festival has celebrated with tone of excitement and happiness throughout the city. Almost whole country has brighten with colorful lights of Diwali. But still there are some people like Daya and Kamlesh, for them it was just another day of their life. Our country is growing like anything but we are missing our responsibilities. Nowadays, we don’t celebrate events for the sake of joy and happiness but for getting selfies with desired background. We are not realizing that behind those fake smiles on selfie, we are missing real smiles and wishing of poor people like Daya.

  

          We are the only hopes for those people to their happiness. If we all not come up to help them, than who will do??? Those Chinese, whose shits are becoming parts of our daily lives or those money minded large retail/eCommerce owners? No! None of them, but we can…. It is our responsibility to encourage those small hawkers who never have any intentions to earn more by cheating us, who don’t works for becoming a million-dollar organization but for survival of themselves and their families. Their hopes depends on us and if we don’t help them, their blind hopes will die someday and gradually we all lost our childhood. Apart from all of this money, earning, profit and loss, there is one big thing and that is humanity. We should stick with the same.

      

       This is not only story of Daya and Kamlesh, but this is story of one third of our population who works hard to earn for survival but due to challenges of Chinese products, their all hopes are dying. Not only Chinese products but our buying habit are also changing year per year. Now days, we buy even vegetable also from departmental stores or order online, rather going to market and buying fresh from those small street vendors. So, there are a lot of habit which we can change for helping the sake of helping those poor vendors because their hopes are dying and one day will come when they will lost their dying hopes also.

 

          We all must think about this…………………..


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