Jaiprakash Kardam is one of the respected Dalit writers. Most of his stories revolve around the problems faced by Dalits. The present story is one such. The story describes the pitiable state of those poor and homeless people who have to live a hellish life on the footpaths of Delhi in the cold and harsh winter months. This story also gives us a touching description of the uncaring attitude of the ‘genteel’ (upper-class) society towards the poor and downtrodden.
Chandraprakash lived in Delhi and was an officer of the Central government. He lived with his family in the government residential quarters. With the help of a loan from the bank, he had purchased a flat in Dwaraka Colony, which was quite far from his office. Therefore, instead of staying in his own home, he stayed with his family in the government quarters. He wished to rent out his flat to some good person.
Every month, Chandraprakash along with his wife would visit and inspect the flat. He would also pay the maintenance charges of 1,000 rupees for the flat, to the society’ office. It was the month of January. That year, Delhi was experiencing unusually rigid cold. Everyone was shivering due to the extremely cold weather. Chandraprakash, on his way to his flat, had seen with his own eyes, the poor ** and the destitute old people sitting on the roadside, shivering from the cold. Looking at them, his heart melted. Chandraprakash told his wife that those poor people were really very unfortunate because they had no roof over them no clothes to wear, nor food to eat. His wife answered indifferently, that those people were lazy and did not want to work. She asked why they did not do any work. She felt that there was no need to look at those people with mercy or generosity. Chandraprakash listened to his wife’ words silently.
Chandraprakash and his wife reached their flat. He saw that pigeons had built their nests inside his flat. The flat was very *****. He began to think about the thousands of people who were homeless and had no option but to live on the streets in a pitiable condition while the pigeons were leading a peaceful life inside hiş flat. Chandraprakash thought that he could give his empty flat for a few days to those homeless people to live in for a few days. When he told his wife that he was thinking of giving his flat to the homeless people for a few days, she refused point-blank. Even the members of the housing society were of the opinion that it would not be right to allow homeless, illiterate people to live among the educated and decent members of society. The members of the housing society refused to give him permission for this under any circumstances.
Chandraprakash was saddened by the words of his wife and the housing society members. While returning, he observed the poor **** on the streets, shivering from the cold. He sympathized with them. He felt the horrific effects that the cold wave’ was having on the bodies of these young ****. He wanted to give a hundred rupee note to the **** but then thought will hundred rupees solve the problems of these ****? No! Thus, even though he wanted to help the homeless people living on the street, he was unable to do so.
