Issuu

ANGELS OF GHOST STREET

114

ANGELS OF GHOST STREET

115

148

ANGELS OF GHOST STREET

149

164

ANGELS OF GHOST STREET

WHO THE DEVIL IS THIS DR PATHAK? An entrepreneur who has succeeded beyond all expectation and who generously supports those who face endless despair? Simply a millionaire who is inspired by goodwill and who, despite a stressful business life, does good in his spare time? If you look at him from a distance, like a tourist, you’ll see him bending down among the underprivileged and might think he is one of the well-to-do who give away part of their considerable wealth to alleviate some ills and dry some tears, and in doing so, buy themselves perfect karma or a place in paradise. But for Bindeshwar Pathak, who holds a PhD in sociology, changing the world is not a hobby. It is his whole life. He may not be known to many of our contemporaries, yet he has received a string of accolades, from the Légende de l’Environnement from the French Senate to the title ‘Guru of the Toilets’, which the press awarded him with gentle irony coupled with admiration. With patience and perseverance, with kindness and efficiency, this man, who could have remained perfectly ordinary, is about to change the face of the Indian subcontinent and to become an example for the whole planet. And yet it all started rather badly. Born into a high-caste family, he was educated to respect certain rules set in stone, one of those being that you do not mix with certain people who were absolute pariahs. You did not play with their children nor even allow their shadow to fall on you. These were the untouchables and practically everything was forbidden to them. They were forced to do the most unpleasant tasks, to go barefoot in the street and to live at a respectable distance from the village. Drinking from the masters’ wells was an offence that could be punished by beatings or even cost them their lives. However much his family wanted him to be a Brahmin, Bindeshwar was like all children: a little rascal and insatiably curious. He wanted to experiment and explore whatever fascinated him, and to test his limits, even if it meant doing exactly the opposite of what he had been told. After all, why not touch these untouchables? At the age of six – a good age to do silly things – he decided, against his better judgement, to put his hand on the hand of an untouchable woman to watch the reactions of his family. No sooner said than done! His grandmother, furious in the face of this sacrilege, immediately took steps to purify the scamp. He was firmly grabbed and forced to eat a cowpat, followed by a dose of the urine of the same animal to make the tasty dish go down better. Then the poor child was plunged into the Ganges up to his nose as an exercise in catharsis. Sacred though the cow is, it remains doubtful that the child appreciated the ritual. “What crazy planet have I landed on? Who are these people who love me and yet make me suffer such treatment on the pretext of teaching me and safeguarding my purity?” That was when he made a silent but solemn vow to himself: that he would one day do something to change all this absurdity. However, Bindeshwar did not get out of the ‘holy’ shit for all that. He faced numerous trials, setbacks, unpleasant surprises and failures, and on many occasions lost everything. At the age of 12, he had another good idea for exploring the world: to climb the highest mango tree, which grow to 25 metres in height, in his garden and pick the biggest fruit, which can weigh up to two kilogrammes. But for a courageous young man, the highest fruit is obviously the best and the most difficult to get. His foot slipped and our hero had a spectacular fall that very nearly ended it all there. The multiple fractures he suffered in his left arm were so severe that amputation was recommended. A village medicine man achieved the miracle of rejoining the pieces and saving the hand. From all this the young adventurer concluded: I am certainly a bit crazy, but fate has saved me and it will save me again. And he learned from each trial, used each obstacle as a trampoline and saw each mistake as an opportunity for ANGELS OF discovery. When he was 13, his uncle, who was also the head of the joint family, was murdered, and165 the GHOST STREET