[Urbanstudy] urbanstudygroup- third posting

[Priyasha Kaul]

In my last posting I had described the socio-physical space of tilak
vihar and had planned to go further in this third posting and talk
about the welfare activities in the area and the muddled role of a
non-governmental organization called 'nishkam' which operates in the
area. But before I get into all of that I have got to stop myself and
write about a person called Gurmukh singh whom I recently met. Gurmukh
singh has an unusual lifestory.

 It is a story of how violence can take on so many forms. I want to
write about what he told me not just because it mocks the hollowness
of the entire rights discourse but also about what is the line beyond
which a person is socially branded as "insane", and how easy it is for
the state to completely destroy such a person's life. But apart from
all this, it also tells of a person determined to fight and persevere
no matter what it takes and never to loose hope.

Gurmukh singh talks fondly of his early days in the city. He used to
drive a taxi (and proudly insists that I take down the taxi number DLY
/ DLZ) for the Karachi Taxi House near the Imperial hotel back then in
the late 1950's and early 60's. He gets extremely nostalgic as he
starts explaining how the Ashoka hotel, Pragati Maidan and American
embassy were all under construction at that time and he often used to
drive around them.

But the happiest moment of his life was when he once got the chance to
drive Jawaharlal Nehru around (never mind the fact that the atrocities
that befell them were connected to the same family, Nehru for him was
a hero and he cannot hear a word against him). Afterwards, he started
working for the DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation), which was called
DTU back then. He elaborates how it was a completely different world
back then, the bus fare just 7 rupees to go from Delhi to Jaipur, and
initially his entire months salary was just 75 Rupees.

In November 1984, however, his life took a drastic turn, he lost 9
members of his family, including his two sons, son-in-law and nephews,
in the bloody carnage. They moved to the Farash bazaar camp from their
houses in Trilokpuri. But just as he was trying to pick up the pieces,
on 15th January 1985, DTC claimed that he was unfit to carry on doing
his job anymore because he was insane as he had alleged to have
threatened to throw a bus full of people down a bridge. On the 15th of
March 1985, he was taken to the Shadara mental asylum where he was
declared mentally unfit. Thus, Dtc lodged an FIR against him in the
farash bazaar police thana (police station) and fired him from his
job.

Gurmukh Singh, then, filed case against the DTC in Tiz Hazari court,
where in court number 366, judges Kishan Singh Yadav, S. K. Yadav and
H. K. Savaria found him innocent and ordered the dtc to give him back
duty full pay. However, the dtc refused to give him his pension, so,
in 2002, he filed another case for it in the high court. And after
seven months of hearing the court ordered the DTC to pay him the
pension with interest. But, he still has not received the interest
amount and now plans to go to the Supreme Court to fight for his
right. I

n the meantime, all these years he has supported his family, which
includes himself, his wife and three daughters by teaching people to
drive. The DTC claimed in court that he was driving an auto rickshaw
till 1992-93 (even though they could not produce any vehicle number)
and was thus earning money. And according to 20 Rs per day of earning,
they deducted 16500 rupees from the money he was supposed to get. He
was also fined 500 rupees because he was not able to save his uniform
and identity card during the carnage to return it to the dtc.

Today, he only has one dream in his life. A dream he has been working
hard for, the dream to one day be able to save enough money to buy a
maruti van (omni) and to drive that to go and meet Sajjan Kumar, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and President Abul Kalaam. When I ask him why
does he need a maruti van for that, he says "main unse shaan se jaake
milunga, main harne wala nahi hoon" (I want to meet them with pride, I
am not a loser). "Sajjan kumar ki main jaa kar bezati karunga" (I'll
go and humiliate sajjan kumar). "And ask the other two, that if I had
actually gone insane on the 15th of January 1985, then why did they
let me drive the buses till the 15th march 1985?"