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streets of Mumbai struggling to survive. Life changes one fine day when he finds a baby wrapped up in a parcel on a bench near the railway tracks. He christens her Kajol after his favourite star from the Bollywood flick “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”, where she was shown as someone really fond of kids. With the help of a social worker he manages to give ‘his’
Kajol a home in an orphanage in Vashi. He joins her there but circumstances bring him back to the streets. He longs to see Kajol but gradually understands there is no way to do so.
The streets near the Gateway offer new challenges, new means of survival and ultimately turns him to a male prostitute at the age of twelve. The trauma Rahul faces in one such sexual encounter with a perverted firang, Greg takes him further into the abyss of drugs where from his friends at
Sharan, an NGO for street kids, rescue him after rigorous Detox sessions.
There is much, much more to the story. The sudden twists, Rahul’s feelings for Kajol, his relations with Chandni, and of course, with Karim Bhai, are some of them. Pestonji sensitively reveals an urchin’s desperate need to belong. Sudden blows of fate take dear ones out of Rahul’s reach and we find him taking radical steps to fight his depressions. Meher Pestonji’s minute observation of the plight of children living in slums and streets is evident in her honest attempt to unmask the social evil of paedophiles – seldom exposed before.
All in all, Sadak Chhaap is a simply told tale that blatantly unfolds several social evils against street kids. They love Bollywood icons, speak to the moon when the world sleeps and wake up with the sun scorching their skins. Life for ‘sadak chhaaps’ is tough, full of dreams that starkly stand out against the backdrop of an approaching, inevitable bleak future.
The language used is lucid and borders on Indian English that gives the entire work an earthy feel, touching some deep chord within. The pace is uniform and unity of time is maintained and deliberately looked after. What results is a pen-picture of a child’s life on the streets and the author’s merciless damnation of paedophiles. Fast money through prostitution lures Rahul but what comes later is the real agony so far cloaked under Denim after-shaves and branded walkmans.
Not always do we come across a work of fiction that is as close to reality as Sadak Chhaap. What’s more interesting is despite such brutal portrayal of adversities; you would want to read it again.
Sadak Chhaap is a must read for those who love life and wouldn’t mind delving into its darker recesses which conformists smugly choose to ignore.
Reviewed by Devapriya Banerjee
Designed by Subhadip Mukherjee
A writer with such strong sensitivities is sure to heighten the reader’s curiousity.
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