Mukherjee Nagar near Delhi University
in North Delhi is the Mecca of Civil Service aspirants now. In this bustling area lives Mr. Hardev Kumar
a septuagenarian, sleeping on the pavement of one corner of the street even
during this peek winter.
Mr. Ashish Pandey, one of DNipCare’s committed volunteers
and also a Civil Service aspirant, during
his morning walk met this graceful old man on the Christmas day, lying on this
pavement with an old uro bag hanging on his body and struggling with abdominal
pain. Biting cold wind was adding up to
his misery. On his intimation the team
comprising Ajith Kumar, Rishad K Karim, Renjith Purushothaman and I reached there
and joined him by noon.
Mr. Hardev was delighted to see the youngsters and opened
up the history of his melancholic life before the volunteers. Hailing from Rawalpindi of undivided India he
migrated along with his family to Delhi during partition. His son died in a train accident long back
and now his daughter is the only one left with as his family member, but the
irony is that she met him only twice during the last 5 years, once in Hindu Rao
Hospital where he was admitted and second time in this pavement two years ago.
He used to sell tomatoes and lemons in his cart on the streets for about
two decades, but on becoming old and ill could not continue resulting in his
dependency on the mercy of passerby of the street. On eruption of severe abdominal pain he used
to visit the OPD of Hindu Rao Hospital and gets his urine catheter changed and
prescription for pain killers which he buys from the nearby medical shop in
piecemeal as he can seldom gather money for whole course of medicines. Of late, as per his version, he feels aversion
in going there due to the verbal thrashing he gets from there. What he required immediately was changing his
catheter which with the help of Rishad K Karim, Renjith Purushothaman , our
Nursing fraternity friends from AIIMS could manage, but inside our Palliative
vehicle parked on the road near the pavement where he sits after covering the
windows to ensure that his privacy is not compromised. Then the medicines prescribed by hospital, lunch,
new bed sheet, juices and packet of dates for nutrition etc. were also part of
our Christmas gifts to his dismay. Now
Ashish has added one new slot in his time table of studies to visit and take
care of Hardev Kumar and visited him again at night and today morning as well
to enquire about his wellbeing.
But even if it is not possible to integrate him with his
family or relatives, if any, the minimum we would like to do is entrust him
with any good agency having premise to keep him so that medical support can be
reached to him and thereby he could be rehabilitated effectively. Our efforts are on and we hope somebody may
rise up to strengthen us.
Anyway, relieving pain of the abandoned street patient, though temporarily, was the Christmas celebration of DNipCare volunteers.
kv hamza,
General Secretary, DNipCare
www.dnipcare.org
9891008356
.jpg)
