Kishan
Bahadur was a jolly, carefree soul. He's the first one telling a vakeelji who's
lost his files to chill; the first to smile as you enter Patiala House court
complex’s tension-drenched filing room. But since April 25, this year, Kishan
Bahadur has become a different person.
He’s
from Pokhara Village in Nepal, where a 7.8 Ritcher scale earthquake that hit
the country last month destroyed 90% of the buildings. Kishan’s house — where
his wife and two small children reside — was demolished he tells me. With a
sigh of relief, he adds, no one was home at the time.
“My
wife was at the neighbors, and the kids were in school. It’s only by pure luck
and gods’ grace that I still have a family,” he explains.
He
adds, "they don’t have a house to live in anymore and are staying with the
neighnours.” He shrugs, but one can tell his pride is hurt -- he's the sort of
man who believes in taking from no one.
Having
no home to go back to is not the end of Kishan’s woes. Due to the sudden force
majure, he also has no money for the trip home, or to fix the broken down
building once he gets to his destination.
Being
a proud Bahadur and has not yet asked the district judge in charge Amar Nath
for help as of yet. Truth told, he confesses, he did not know asking
the DJ for help was an option.
In
fact, Kishan and others like him are worried that their pay will be affected if
they go to Nepal during court working days. At the moment, lower court staff is
only given a certain number of leaves, and anyone exceeding those gets a
pay-cut.
Those
Nepalis who have already used their limited number of paid holidays are not
getting any concession to visit their homeland post-Earthquake. With the typical Bahadur sense
of humour he adds, the only good thing is that this happened at the beginning
of the year, so not many have taken holidays yet.
Strapped
for cash themselves, Kishan’s colleagues in the filing room are collecting
money on his behalf. So far, ten people have contributed, and they have Rs.
2000 to give towards rebuilding a house whose value in memories cannot be
quantified.
“Not
a lot of the staff is being generous as well. I’ve contributed, some others
have. Some know Kishan needs the money but ignore us. I mean how much can one
go door to door also na?” one Reader tells me under the condition of
anonymity.
There
are at least 20 Pokhara villagers working as junior staff or menial labour in
various district courts in Delhi. The overall count of Nepali workers within
the city’s judicial system exceeds 100.
Tis
Hazari court, which has about 50 Nepalis working in it has the largest number,
closely followed by Saket court that employs 20 and Patiala House Court that
employs 18-20 persons.
I spoke to a number of them from various district courts, and their situation was
found to be similar, if not exactly, like Kishan’s story.
(This reportage is entirely in my personal capacity, has nothing to do with my employer, and was done on my own time. Any liability stemming from the same should be placed on me, and no one else.)
