A camera and a vow

The sprawling Ramlila Maidan comes to life—volunteers sweeping,others stuck in yoga postures,still others sleeping. A huge orange-white canopy covers 3.5 lakh sq feet of the ground. Others line up for breakfast.

Sharma takes his position with a steel bucket of dalia. “Dalia and tea—simple and nutritious,but I told them we should put more sugar in the cereal for children,” he says. A father of four girls,Sharma says he couldn’t bring them with him. “Three of them go to school. Their holidays start only from June 10,maybe I will ask them to join me then. I have already started missing them,” he says. It’s 7 a.m. and more people keep turning up and Sharma hands out plates of dalia. He manages to get free for his own meal only an hour later.

“We have been telling him to take photographs. It would have been like a daily chronicle,but he insists he has made a vow not to take out his camera before Ramdevji’s aashirwad,” says Bipin,one of Sharma’s friends and a volunteer.

A former photographer with a Delhi-based Hindi newspaper,Sharma is popularly known as the ‘newsman’ at the maidan. “I had to leave my job in Delhi and return to my village after my mother had a heart attack. Then I got married,and decided to stay on in Sultanpur. For the last seven years,I have been running my own photo studio at Sultanpur,” he says.

At 10.30 a.m.,after a meeting of volunteers,Sharma has some time for himself. He decides to help out some workers from Vrindavan Tent House who are struggling to prop up part of the orange-white canopy that had given way in a gust of wind on Wednesday evening. After climbing three iron pillars to fix the tent,Sharma looks around proudly. “I am very agile,I could climb trees when I was four. I have also been practising yoga for the last five years,so I can climb these pillars in no time,” he says.

Sharma says he is “registered” with Ramdev’s yoga ashram at Haridwar. He got a call from them a week ago,inviting him to join the yoga camp in the capital. “I didn’t think twice. I booked a ticket straightaway and headed here,” he says.

Volunteers at the maidan have no assigned duties. “We have just been told to do whatever Baba would want us to do—from managing the state-wise registration of satyagrahis to sweeping the sleeping area. It feels great to have packed in so much in the last 24 hours,” says Dhiren. At noon,Sharma is called to the volunteers’ registration desk. “The waiting list for volunteers has run into thousands. There are so many who have turned up that we do not have enough work for everyone. There are little quarrels that break out,so I am often called to sort out these things,” says Sharma. “Solutions are simple,it is for people to find them. Babaji always says that,” he says.

Sharma turns up for lunch duty next,and this goes on till 3 p.m. Just then,there is some drama at the pandal. A Ramdev follower,who has cycled all the way from Patna,collapses in a heap. Sharma is assigned to take care of the man. “Drink some water and keep up the faith. Babaji will be here soon,” whispers Sharma to the 61-year-old farmer. “There are several people here who have gone on their own fasts. Some of them had decided they would drink water only after Ramdevji graces the stage. The heat is taking its toll,and it is sad that Ramdevji had to cancel his press conference today,” says Sharma,allowing his voice a hint of desperation for the first time in the day.

By 5 p.m.,he is ready for his lunch. “I prefer eating last with my friends,after everything else is taken care of. I can enjoy my food in peace,” he smiles. Lunch is two rotis,dal and aloo ki sabzi. “Saraswatiji from West Bengal was making the aloo,which she said she would cook in Bengali style. I taught her our UP style,and she was so impressed,she changed the menu,” he laughs.

The crowd swells by evening—curious onlookers,local shopkeepers,children,and satyagrahis by the hundreds. Dhiren and other volunteers retire to the men’s pandal to sort out the sleeping arrangements. “By tomorrow,we should have more mattresses. So many people have turned up that we are falling short,” he explains.

Finally at 7 p.m.,Sharma is ready to step out of the maidan for the first time that day—he will go on a short “sightseeing trip”. “This is my first visit to the capital after eight years. Everything seems to have changed,even Delhi Gate. I have been dying to see the Metro. I think I will take a ride,” he says.

An hour on the Blueline with four of his friends and a visit to Connaught Place later,Sharma is back to the pandal for dinner. “Tomorrow will be a new day. If Baba gives his darshan,I will take out my old Minolta,” he says.