Published On:Thursday, August 2, 2012
Posted by abg man
Rag picker Monu travels into future
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Rag picker Monu travels into future
It is not a story unfamiliar to you. The uber sophisticated skyline of your city hides a dark underbelly.
You might want to shrivel your nose at it, but the fact that drug and substance abuse is rampant in slum kids is starkly crawling in your backyard. But not every one of those fortunately poised in society is willing to turn a blind eye to this truth. Sumeer Walia, an entrepreneur who moved to India from the US about two years ago, decided to do something about it with his first step being to document the life, and reformation, of one such kid, a rag picker named Monu. By making Monu's story exemplary, Sumeer is hoping that the society would get a lesson, or awakening, in being sensitized towards this matter.
"The fact that these kids sniff whitener fluids, and consume all sorts of substances as a habit, is not unknown. But how many of us are willing to talk about this issue? After all, it exists in 'our' society and these are precious live we are talking about," says Sumeer who aptly titled his short film, The Life I left Behind. But this is not this samaritan's first brush with this side of civilization. "In my spare time, I had been visiting these kids in this children's home Ashiana in Panchkula, (near Chandigarh) and offering grooming tips, playing music to them, talking to them since I returned from the US," says Sumeer.
It was during one of these visits that he came across two new boys who had been brought into the home a day before. "These two were into buying liquid from hardware shops and totally addicted to it. For the first few days I only spoke to them to understand their motives for the drug abuse and found that neglect at home, with a large family and alcoholic father to blame, spurred them towards drugs."
While his association with the home had been for a long time, the story of these two boys moved Sumeer enough. "Now, I wanted to do something about my concern for these kids. And the best way to express it was by making a documentary that can be screened at places so that people sit up and take notice," he Sumeer. Since one of the two kids left after a few months, Sumeer started to document Monu's life and daily activities. "With the help of a local NGO, ASHI-Haryana, the boy showed tremendous improvement from the time he had first come to the home," beams Sumeer.
With the documentary being a realm of candid shots of Monu's real life, Sumeer is hopeful that it would find space in venues where it matters. "If you think about it, I didn't do much except making a documentary. But I intend taking it further, by connecting with other NGOs and local bodies, and also screening the film at festivals," adds Sumeer who is on to his next project, a documentary titled, Restoration Of Human Dignity.
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