Waking up at 8 in the morning, after facebooking till 2 at nite can be a dreadful experience specially when you have your mummy scolding U as soon as she saw U. Scolding for staying awake so late at night and doing stupid and idiotic things all day on Lapi..
Got a text as soon as I switched on my cell.Hey I am planning to shoot a documentary today at Swami Shradhanand Marg. Please do come, It will really help me as U know how to convince people. [Crazy Aanchal] who wanted to be a director was the sender. She fled off to Bombay to do a course on Direction a year back and since then has been in constant touch whenever she needed money or wanted any other help.
Swami Shradhanand Marg…. WTF… where is it.. Opened Google and upon typing the name, I realized dat in our language, it is GB road!! What the hell Aanchal will do at GB road was what I thought immediately.Wow GB road.. I said to myself..I have passed through that area many times but neither had the courage of going upstairs to any Kotha or dark dungeon.
GB road is the premier red light area of Delhi and often we crack jokes and stories about how young 'inexperienced' men were lured inside and then robbed of their mobile phones, wallets, shoes , chaddis and boxers!!. I was better safe outside. Never had the balls to walk inside . Later, after 2 hours, she called me and told me about the short film. It was based on the kids of sex workers, how they live their daily lives. (Do they live a daily life? Or, is it just about survival against all odds?). I reached the New Delhi Metro station at the specified time. !! Seeing me there, she was delighted and gave me a grand hug.. Wow, U seem to be working out. She said with a smile and after a couple of of Suttas, we were off. She took out her Cannon DSLR and started clicking pictures . changing the scenes from white balance to grey scale and relishing each of the pictures that she was clicking. Crazy Aanchal was acting like a Kiddo!
They say it is Asia’s largest hardware market. It could be true. Stores are forever stocked with pumps and paints, tiles and other sanitary stuff. Across the road is the Indian Railways Coach Care Centre from where we saw horny firangi tourists secretly taking the pics of the Gals and aunties standing on the balcony .There was also a theka . Wow!!!
As soon as we entered the main lane , we could see most of the sex workers standing on the windows waving,shouting some of them whistling just to seek attention of the people who were passing by..Finally Aanchal said lets go to this one. Kotha No50 was what It read and we had to climb around 20 stairs to reach the Kotha. We saw 2 dalals standing there and one of them was watching both of us with suspicion.
We went inside and we saw a big hall with around 20 ladies and girls sitting on the floor all the eyes were on both of us.The murmurings and chit chatting stopped and there was a pin drop silence.”Namaste, hum log 1 NGO chalate hai and hum 1 picture banana chahte hai aapki aur bachon ki life ko lekar” I said confidently and softly.
Aap kahan se ho??
Hume kuch nahi kehna??
Kaun si NGO??
Kaisi picture???
Were a few questions I understood. Aanchal was sweating and I could see the tension on her face. Hum Delhi ke hi hai and hum aapke bacho ki life par 1 short film banana chahte hai .
There was a lady who suddenly appeared in bright red saree. She welcomed us inside and asked us to sit on the floor mat.We both sat and all of them surrounded us.
Aap log toh kafi young ho. Aapkaise film banaoge. A young girl around 17-18 years came and asked this.
Anchal told her” Maine course kiya hai Bombay se film directing par. Main banaungi film she said with a confident smile. Kitni fees di thi course ki .. Main bhi Doctor banna chahti hoon and apni mummy ka cancer theek karna chahti hoon said Deepa and suddenly our voice choked.
Cancer..We have heard about this word , this desease before and we knew that people who suffer from cancer live a terrible life full of pain and sufferings..
2lakh fees and 1 saal ka course hai was what Aanchal told her. Everyone who heard 2 lakhs was shocked. Might have never heard of so much money spent on doing a course.We asked them, we would like to see the childrens and ask them questions and click there pictures.
On the third floor, we entered a room where 10-12 children were sitting. Ye bhaiya aur didi tumse milne aaye hai aur aaj tum logo ke saath khelenge was what deepa said. All of them were very excited on hearing this and came closer to us.Aanchal took her camera out and asked the bacha party to pose for different pictures. After taking around 50 pictures, she slid the camera inside the pouch once again.We said hie to the drawing teacher, a freelancer who comes in the weekends to teach the children painting and helps the children with other recreational activities.
We could see children from all parts of India.,anjali about seven barely spoke.She wandered all around with a toffee in her hand. Suddenly we realised that anjali-the ‘silent one'- had all the attention of Faiz, an eight year old kid. If the women of the house were to be believed, Faiz was in love with her. He adores her, takes care of her and shares his food with her.Indeed me and Aanchal were smiling like kiddos after hearing all this!! :-P
We saw Deepak and karishma drawing something on there sheets.Colors were flying This was not a red light area. This was fantasy unleashed, of a childhood in exile, condemned in innocence.To every1’s amazement, Faiz drew quite well.
So, do they go to school? I asked Deepa after lighting a cigarette, in the balcony. She said , yahan saare sarkari schools hai jahan padai nahi hoti.. I realized then ,that coming over and helping children out once in a while is not a bad idea. About to light my second one, Aanchal came and kicked me behind.. Dude, WTF cant you do this later, she said with her devilish voice.
I am coming in 5 mins… I said
Entered inside and the children were about to go 2 there English classes. We asked them questions about how have they been living and do they get proper food and how there parents treated them, Aanchal making notes in her notepad. Arjun saw my blackberry and wanted to use it.. I gave it to him and within 2 minutes, I could see he started playing snakes after unlocking it. Wow, quick learner I admired!!
With the bacha party gone, we were served chai,namkeen and anda-bread. All of them gathered around and one of them even asked me that if possible come over and help the kids occasionally with studies.They were even ready to pay me!! Strange but true. Occasional interference of one or two clients did not hamper our conversation. I said will definitely try to come and I could see the smile on there face when they heard this.
We bid adieu to them later in the evening and I could see the happiness in the eyes of bacha party and there families that some one came and talked to them about there condition and some people will try there best to help them. We took an Auto and headed to New Delhi again.Aanchal gave me a high five as we sat in the auto and I could see the happiness in her eyes as she hugged me saying “ It was very emotional” and started crying, I said “ Hey, we will surely do something about it was what I said and wiped her tears.
I am glad, it changed the way I used to see GB road…
