Name : Pandurang Shelki.
Pandurang The Jaipur Foot Fighter
Profession : Beggar.
Lives in Thane.
What Life Means to Him : His Foot.
I was really in a hurry and was walking along the street when I saw this man on the street outside the temple waiting to get alms. I stopped talking on the phone and sat down on the road beside him. I saw his amputated leg and the artificial leg beside him. I asked him if I could speak to him and ask him certain questions. He agreed. HIs attitude struck me as really appreciable. The confident disposition and the air of “I don’t care” really was impressive. In spite of all odds here is a man who had the self esteem and self respect intact.
Pandurang The Fighter with a Jaipur Foot
I asked him how he lost his leg. He said he was travelling from Aurangabad in a crowded train. He was standing at the door to get down when he got suddenly pushed and fell down on the tracks. He had a fracture in his legs but did not have money to treat it. The doctor had no choice but to amputate his leg as there was a wound and the infection was spreading.
The Vulnerable Pandurang And his Jaipur Foot
He then came to Thane where a leprosy patient on the road asked him to go to Jaipur and get the Jaipur foot. Pandurang today is able to walk because of this, but when he sits to beg he takes out the leg and keeps it aside.
Pandurang’s Jaipur Foot
Earlier he was a construction worker and today because he does not know how to approach someone and ask about a means to earn, he has resorted to begging. His wife is no more and he has kids in the village who he sends money to. he earns around Rs. 200 a day he said.
Pandurang Shelki the Jaipur Foot fighter
Pandurang Shelki his name he said it is and I felt he is surely a soul for the world to know. I plan to get someone who would help him and teach him to have a means to earn instead of begging.
The Vulnerable Pandurang And his Jaipur Foot
The Souls Of The World Bistro 