It would have been a fairly common sight for several months and years: a small, abandoned boy and his constant companion- a dog of unknown pedigree- moving from one village to another, one town to another. Trudging along silently without hope or succour, the two pacing ahead with not a single guardian angel coming to their help. Millions of people reside in the western Uttar Pradesh towns of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. Many among them, it’s safe to assume, would have seen and even grasped the plight of this little boy. But none thought of extending a helping hand to him.
This mass apathy for the boy and his dog went on for quite long. And it would have continued (call it human nature), had not the Muzaffarnagar’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mr Abhishek Yadav come across the unusual pair. When he spotted the boy, the latter was sleeping on a pavement with his dog, the thin sheet of cloth over them woefully inadequate to save either of the two from the biting December cold.
Help Comes to the Boy, Finally
Mr Yadav spoke with Indian Masterminds about what happened next. Now of course, the news is all over the nation, and many people – good Samaritan all, God bless their souls- have started pitching in with offers of generous donation for the beleaguered boy.
A boy abandoned by his parents and thrown to the big, bad world to fend for himself has been a constant theme for many a renowned author. Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield, even the resourceful but hapless Mowgli in his infancy (with the menacing Sher Khan always on his tail); they all seem to have been cut out from the same cloth.
But the similarity ends here. While Kim, Copperfield and Mowgli were crafted out of their creators’ masterful imagination, the boy discovered few days go on a pavement of Muzaffarnagar exists in real flesh and blood.
Tough as Nails
And this boy, let it be known for the record, may have been small in age but his resourcefulness and ability to stay alive and kicking is nothing short of spectacular- even heroic at times. He managed to survive whatever cruel blows life could throw at him. He survived by working in roadside eateries, lifting luggage and even doing manual labour.
At the end of every day, he and his dog would sleep on whatever little corner of Earth they could find at that hour. But to his credit he never gave up, all the while clinging on to dear life for whatever it was worth.
Thanks to the SSP Mr Yadav, the boy is in the safe hands, back into the safety of society which should have been his lot in the first place. Mr Yadav told Indian Masterminds that the boy has been put up in a shelter home in Muzaffarnagar.
A School for Him
Next on the cards is giving formal education to the boy. Said Mr Yadav, “A school in Meerut has decided to take the boy under its charge. He would soon be studying there.’’
Adnan is the name of this boy, the police found out subsequently. And his story is as heart wrenching as the starch-laden soap operas of Ekta Kapoor kind- only this time, it’s for real. A few years ago, Adnan’s father got into a jam with the law and has been in jail since then. His mother, meanwhile, discovered the second love of her life, married him and threw her son out on the streets.
When Script Writers Fail
Fact is stranger, and often stronger and more bizarre, than fiction. Had it not been so, as demonstrated aptly by this boy, Ms Kapoor’s script writers would have created something around his travails and hardships. They did not because it would have looked “unreal’’ to the viewers.
One wonders if there has been any taker for the boy’s dog too. After all, it was the only pillar of support to the kid throughout his treacherous journey, and must have seen for itself what all cruelty the human race is capable of.
