July 23, 2011
My neighbour Krishna never seemed to be walking. He was always on his toes. He would rush to join his team of masonry. But today I found him in a strange situation. Till date I never knew that he could ride a bicycle, because I knew well that his poverty did not allow him to own one. But today he was trying to balance on a brand new bicycle. He was already perspiring trying to peddle his bicycle through the narrow strips between the fields. Mud on his dress told me that once or twice his bicycle had ventured into the fields too.
I usually avoided everything I noticed in him. But now with his new bicycle I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I grew inquisitive. But Krishna is equally sharp. He could read the frown on my forehead and before I could frame a question in my mind he became vociferous. He praised the government, party, ministers and everyone he could. He jeered at others who couldn’t give him anything. I just gaped at him trying to understand what he was trying to verbalize.
Finally, he announced with a broad smile on his face that the bicycle was a “Government Bicycle”. I had heard Government Bus so far, but never about a “Government Bicycle”. He understood my query and explained to me all about it. He told me about the Government scheme of distributing bicycles to eighth standard students. Since his daughter was studying in the eighth she too was given one. He did not hesitate to mention that she didn’t know to ride it. Even if she did, her tender limbs may not have had the strength to peddle it through these narrow strips among the fields as they didn't have an approach road to their village. So he had become the proud owner of the government bicycle now. Not only I, a few others also observed the circus Krishna was engaged with.
But I was fully disturbed by the whole situation. Should Krishna’s daughter been given a bicycle when she doesn’t have proper dress to wear, proper house to stay, proper toilet facility to keep up the hygiene? Everyone in the village knows that Krishna’s family is bent with dire poverty, struggling to eat a square meal a day. What Krishna and his family needed was not a bicycle. They wanted a road facility to the lone house on the edge of a thick forest. The whole village lamented with him when his father, a powerful village docter, died on the way when he was being carried to the hospital seated on a chair. Krishna requires electricity in his house. The whole village was flabbergasted when it learnt that his mother died of snake bite when she accidentally stamped on it in the dark. He requires a proper house to stay. His house is the only thatched house in the village. He wants a toilet in the house as his children are growing and he also is aware of the importance of health.
Incidentally I met a high school teacher on the way. He too was in a hurry to go to the school. When I asked him the reason he said that he was in charge of the distribution of the bicycles in the school. He thought of it not as an an issue but intervention of the politicians which was a greater headache if you did not know the protocol. This whole affair had become a party agenda and that it was over-emphasized to get political mileage was an open secret.
During the course of the conversation I learnt that the students would have to take care of the bicycles for three years and the teachers in the school were supposed to monitor the whole process. The students are not supposed to sell these bicycles to others. My curiosity prompted me to ask the teacher whether all the students rode their bicycles to school. My guess complied with his answer, “Hardly fifty percent,” he said. “What about the rest?” I asked. He didn’t answer. The sarcastic smile on his face was enough for me to understand the hidden answer. Hardly had we closed our conversation than a cyclist was about to bump my vehicle. Somehow both of us managed to escape. The cyclist gave a broad smile to the teacher and said, “Sir, the bicycle is not of a good quality”. The teacher didn’t say anything because the bicycle was not given to him.
In the evening when I was returning home I witnessed yet another interesting thing. Krishna was walking back home. The bicycle he rode in the morning had disappeared. The walking style indicated that he was drunk. He had some grocery items in his bag. He knew what could be my question this time. “Sirrr, I Soold the biicccickkl” he said. “Becassss off raainn therrr waaaass nooo wooork toooday. Nooo moooneyy tchuu bbbuyy anythhinngg...."
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