People generally welcome rains around this time as they are the harbinger of real winter. But for the homeless, rains prove an anathema.
They faced problems as it rained here on Friday.
These homeless people, begging or selling things for a living, say that the rains and the winter make their life awfully difficult.
Hailing mostly from places like lucknow and Mathura, they have migrated here to sell gemstones and brooms.
They sell things at Parade Ground and also near Rispana Bridge and Ballupur Chowk.
Sonu who was found sitting gloomily outside his tent at Parade Ground said that he with his family has been living in this area for the past one month.
“All our mattresses and blankets have got wet due to the rain. I sell gemstones around the city and sometimes, when I have nothing to manage even two square meals a day for myself and my family I beg.
When it rains I hardly get any customer and I have not even a single penny. I beg to stop the stabs of hunger,” he added.
Phulwari a girl of around 20, said that she and others of the family sleep outside Kanak Cinema near Parade Ground. “During the winter as well as when it rains it becomes difficult for us to sleep there. We have to wait for the shopkeepers to close their shops so that we could sleep outside their shops,” she said.
Balwa told the same story of the rain-spawned woe. “I have two sets of clothes. When it rains they are wet. Besides, having no woolen, I am used to shivering when the winter turns acute. We feel sad when we find people enjoying the winter with sufficient woolens on. This is what our fate has ordained for us. We have to accept it,” she said.
Manju who daily sells brooms and earns around Rs 100-150 a day, said she had to resort to begging often as the money earned through selling brooms was not enough to meet the daily expenses of life. “We are helpless with no place left for us to live in. Rains trigger curse for us, particularly, for our kids. They cry all the while it rains. When the kids catch cold or cough or get fever we spend all that we earn on buying medicines for them,” she added.
“With no slippers, no food, no clothes, we have to live like this every day, rain or no rain,” said Kapil, adding that the rains and the winter just aggravate their predicament.
“We are worried as things would be more chilling in the coming days. Sometimes, a few generous people provide us with free blankets and clothes. We are grateful to them. However, some cops ask to leave this place and go elsewhere. But where would we goIJ This is how we are living, at the mercy of weather, of people and the hard-hearted cops,” he added.