Author: Sutapa Mukerjee
Publication: Outlook
Date: March 12, 2001
Introduction: For 'Bhule Bhatke'
Tiwari, the Kumbh is a place to rescue lost souls
Kumbh might be a 41-day festival
for most, but for 76-year-old Raja Ram Tewari it's been a 55-year-old affair,
and is still going on. And it's an affair that seems a straight
lift from a Bombay masala film-involving people getting lost in a mela
and then being reunited again. As he begins to share his experiences,
his eyes sparkle with excitement. "I was only 20 when I first
decided to help the 'lost' reunite with their families." Tiwari was quite
a Pied Piper figure then: holding a hand-made tin loudspeaker, he'd move
around in the mela area with the 'lost' people following him.
All he had to do was keep shouting that the 'lost' are with him.
This way they'd get noticed and often be reunited with their families.
Tiwari was an 18-year-old lad when
curiosity first led him to the Magh Mela, a huge congregation on the banks
of the Sangam at Allahabad. With no infrastructural facilities,
the devotees didn't have it easy those days. "My friends and
I realised that many pilgrims were falling ill with no one to take care
of them," reminisces Tiwari. The gr The group then convinced
a local vaid to look after the ailing. "Also, many lost people
were beginning to come to us for help, so I decided to take up the task
in right earnest," he says. Since then, there's been no looking back.
Over the past five decades, Tiwari has become an indispensable personality
in such fairs. Says the SP, Kumbh 2001, Alok Sharma: "The man
really knows how to comfort the people who reach his tent, and he manages
to get all the information required to help them unite with their families."
According to Tiwari, all this is not a simple task, especially with rural
women and small children. With immense pride, Tiwari starts
relating some of his experiences.
During the recent Kumbh, some boy
scouts helped a mute woman reach the 'lost and found' tent.
Asked for her husband's name, the woman would repeatedly point to the leaves
of a nearby tree. Tiwari understood she was trying to say "Hari"
(as in the colour green). Soon, the announcements began: "A
mute woman around 35 years with three children, husband's name Hari..."
The announcements continued for a week, but no one came to claim her.
Finally, a relative arrived with a picture of the couple and she left with
him, weeping with joy. "It was a rather difficult task trying
to get the details from her," says Tiwari and adds, "but I have learnt
most of the tricks of my trade by now." According to Tiwari, the most difficult
cases are infants. "My wife has been a great support, she always
helps in taking care of these kids," he says with obvious pride.
And as he describes scenes of parents and children reuniting, his eyes
turn moist. "Their happiness really touches me," he says.
Yet not all children make it home, and Tiwari hands over such cases to
the police, from where many are adopted by eager couples.
So far Tiwari has attended six Ardh
Kumbhs, three Kumbhs and two Mahakumbhs besides the Magh Melas in Allahabad.
According to official records, he's helped more than four lakh adults and
25,000 children reunite with their families. Interestingly, it's easier
to locate him by asking for 'Bhule Bhatke' Tiwari-the name he's better
known by both in Allahabad and his village.After a month at the Kumbh,
Tiwari is now back in his village, Nandu ka Purva in Pratapgarh.
He's a happy man, now that the government has acknowledged his services
and offered help as well. "This year the mela administration
is gifting me a new bicycle besides the usual kurta and dhoti," says Tiwari
excitedly. For, the man who helps reunite families lives a
frugal life in a mud hut with his fields to keep him busy-when he's not
playing the saviour during the melas. His address: Gaura, Nandu
ka Purva, District Pratapgarh or 614/1, Om Gayatri Nagar, Salori, Allahabad;
phone (0532) 646537.
