Rifleman Poonam Chand, comes all the way from a small town in Maharashtra. As a boy of just 8 yrs, he knew that the responsibility of the two members’ home was now his. His father had succumbed to a massive heart attack and he now lived with his widowed mother in a rented home. His mother had to do a lot of odd jobs to support her son and herself. The rent, the food, school fees, and the endless expenditure list looked her into the eye. In a situation like that, I cant be surprised when he said that his mother never slept at night. Poonam stopped going to school, because he could see his mother struggling like this. He instead worked as a flunkie in a bada-seth’s (big-lord’s) home and brought 30 Rs. home daily. Life drifted by and Poonam was now a boy of 15yrs. He realised that his income wasn’t enough for the family and set out to learn hair-dressing, which he says was the new craze in his part of the village. Poonam became an instant hit with the villagers and he specialised in the Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan hair-dos, and the time came that he should set up his own shop and relocate himself from below a tree to a shop in the bazaar. He along with his then friend joined hands and set up a shop, which was his reason for pride just for a quarter of year, after which with fake documents his now enemy, took charge of the shop.
Life did not end there for Poonam, he went as a home nurse to an old age home and earned some money daily for a square meal daily, but it really did not help his mother much, which was the sole reason why he was here in the place place. That was when he knew about the army recruitment in Nashik, and from there till here, it had been an eventful ride. He got married, has a kid and the family of 3 including his mother stays happily in his village while he works here.
After listening to the entire story, I concluded about his quasi-non material psyche and I realised that there was so much to learn from him. If you look at Poonam’s job profile, one can’t help but appreciate the fact that he had almost always worked in which he could help someone. The not-so-in ‘service’ sector. And his being here was again because he wanted to help his mother. I wonder, how many more ways than one are many of us blessed...for homes, family, love, luxury. And for some the definition of luxury is nothing more than a square meal. And once you realise this, how can you actually complain about the things you don’t have, about the flamboyance you missed, when actually we do have the silver spoon in our mouths. Ok, I might sound like an old hag here, but, seriously, I will remember this guy for a long time. Yeah.
Ok, this is my new hair-cut... Good right?
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