Raghu

Raghu lay in the cool shade of the banyan tree. The multi-storeyed building was at last complete. There had been the usual distribution of sweets by the contractor. But Raghu’s heart was filled with sadness. For the past about two years the structure had become a home for him and his family and many other labourers like him. He did not have to bother about the rain, the cold winter winds and heat of the summer season. In the evening after a hard day’s work he and his wife would watch their two children playing in the foreground. All this will have to change now.

            From where he lay the building loomed large and seemed to kiss the sky. Raghu wondered at the Irony of fate. From tomorrow he would not be allowed to come anywhere near the building which he and hundreds like him had constructed. He had become a non-entity for them. The building would house people whose wealth was beyond his comprehension.

            Raghu decided that there was no point in wasting any more time. Life must go on. He had to find a new job. But first a new shelter. Before his assignment on the multi-storeyed building he was staying in a juggi colony near the railway tracks. He decided to shift there for the time-being. As the place was in the suburbs of the city he asked his wife to hurry up with their few belongings so that they could reach the place before sunset. After trudging the long distance on foot, they could reach the place at last. But at first sight he could not recognize the place, No juggi was visible in the area. He could locate someone familiar and asked him about the juggis. He was told that the juggis had been cleared as a new multi-storeyed building was to come up there. Raghu sat down with a heavy heart. Why was fate so cruel to him and people like him who helped in providing shelter for others. His brother who worked as a farm-labourer in his native place led a similar hand to mouth life. Perhaps God who was the provider for all mankind had chosen him and people like him to carry out His work on this Earth of providing food and shelter for other and sacrifice their own life for this divine task.