Hand It To Him

Mohammed Farooq Sayeed is like thousands of people who earn their living on Mumbai’s lifeline—the local trains. And still,he is different from the others. While many who lose their limbs turn to begging,this 36-year-old wouldn’t sell his conscience.

“I lost my hands while working at my uncle’s shoemaking workshop for kids in Calcutta. There was no electricity and I lit a matchstick without knowing there was inflammable solution near me,” he says. Although he was taken to a civic hospital,the ten-year-old was sent back with some basic treatment for the burns and gangrene then set in.

“Doctors in the civic hospital treated me saying there was no need to worry,but soon the gangrene spread and my hands became useless. Later,at the private hospital,doctors told my family that my case was serious and I may not live. They managed to save me but couldn’t save my hands,” he says.

The incident shook the boy,but didn’t demoralise him. “My mother used to cry a lot seeing me,but I wanted to do something.” he says. He tried turning himself into a freak show at a local circus. “I told them to employ me as I thought people would pay to see a kid without two hands. Instead I was handed a free ticket for the circus,” he says with a smile.

The next stop was Mumbai,known to him until then as the Bollywood city where a zero could make it as a hero. In his early days in the city,he saw numerous other kidsas well as old or blind people singing and begging for money.

So he started his career on the Western Railway locals by singing. “I earned very well that way. People would give me a lot of money by pitying on me,but I didn’t want that,” he says. “Mein apna zameer gawara nahi karna chahta tha (I didn’t want to sell my conscience).”

Farooq says he wanted to lead a normal life and,after meeting a veteran of hawking goods on the trains,decided to join him. “I persuaded him to allow me to sell some handkerchiefs. He was not sure if I’d be able to,since I had no hands,but I managed it.”

The next four years were spent selling handkerchiefs,before the itch to do better set in. “It has been more than 16 years now that I am selling earrings,necklaces and bracelets and more than 20 years since the WR local trains became my office space,” says the man who is now an unavoidable feature of WR’s local trains.

People often give Farooq a sympathetic look,but he has an impeccable sense of pride. “I never tell my story to anyone as people try to pity on me. I ask them if there is anything else they can do,so why pity?”

Farooq has also learnt to swim,ride a bicycle,play badminton,cricket. He even married and has a kid. “People are amused when they see me doing things my way. But I can do things as normally,” he says. Though he studied only till Std II and can’t read or write,he is good with numbers and keeps a monthly account of his business,also selecting his wares carefully and keeping track of the latest trends.

Asked if he feels angry or upset to be without hands,he replies philosophically: “Maybe I was the chosen one for Allah,who put me through this test to see if I could pass it. I guess I have.”