The saga of Yamuna’s coin divers caught on film

revered Yamuna that flows through here.

The film begins with a train chugging on a bridge and people ‘offering’ coins to the Yamuna and subsequently praying for their wishes.

It is followed by a shot where a child is seen hurling a dumbbell-shaped greasy object into the river and tugging the rope. The camera zooms into the dumbbell-shaped object and you see one shining coin stuck to it. Later on the scene focuses on two men who narrate how they receive sustenance from the Yamuna in the form of coins.

“The men are part of the marginalised section which is not only homeless and helpless but also are susceptible to the ills of addiction,says Arun.

Nearly 60 per cent of these coin drivers in the national capital are in the grip of some form of addiction. These people are not to difficult to find out. Most of them are

present in a radius of 4-6 km of the bridge over Yamuna that can be reached from Kashmere Gate,according to the film’s narration.

“Coin divers on an average find coins worth Rs 100 daily,” says Arun adding that earning goes up on few occasions when luck smiles upon them in the form of trinkets,heavy metallic objects that fetch decent prices.

The documentary was shot entirely using a DSLR camera which,he said,could be brought out in the open only after he could gain confidence of the coin divers.

The fact that Yamuna plays a pivotal role in these people’s lives can be easily grasped by viewers.

“Yamuna is all encompassing. She gives shelter to all who comes to her. We sleep under the sky and sustain ourselves from her largesseread coins,” says an elderly man in the documentary.

There are also individual stories of how coin-drivers,in the age group of five to 88,are initiated into it and how it is converted into a means for livelihood. A teenage drug addict is heard saying how he was thrown out of house for ignoring his family’s “quit-or-leave” order.

Augustine Ghagre,a Maharashtra native,and 88-year-old Sangma are two main characters in the documentary.

Sangma claims that he was forced to make a living like this for the last forty years after he landed in jail for murdering a man in a fit of anger.

Prior to this,the elderly man in the documentary,claims that he had served the Army and fought three wars.

“It is fate that landed me here…I was young,agile and worked in Army. Once I picked up a fight with some mischief mongers at an eatery. He the victim tried to stab me,but I managed to get hold of the knife and jabbed him. I was thrown

out of the force,landed in jail. I even lost my mental balance. It took some years before I came to my own. I had no place to go after all these years and what I did,” he is heard saying in the documentary.

Another interesting character,Ghagre had sought two favours from Arun before he had agreed to appear before the camera.

The Maharashtrian native was remarkably ‘conscious’,Arun says,as one of his demands was that Arun speak to an NGO so that two of his friends could be reinstated by the management.

Arun says he chose such an unconventional issue because it merits attention. “These men live at the border of our society,but they also deserve some attention,” he says.

“It is worthwhile to note that these men could have taken easier but illegal ways to earn their living. In a place like Delhi where you hear crimes regularly,it is remarkable that these coin divers have taken refuge near the Yamuna and its largess…Yes,they are in a majority drug addicts,or people who had dubious past. But still they are part of the society,” says the filmmaker.

Next up on the agenda for the independent filmmaker is a desire to showcase his documentary at the Iamp;B Ministry’s Indian Panorama film festival.