Where to go?

Where’s my Eclair? Shit, I had forgotten it…I handed 2 rupees over to one of the custodians and asked him to run downstairs and get two éclairs for Himesh. Network of Thane for People Living with HIV/AIDS (NTP+), an NGO, had sent an outreach worker, Arun, to the ART Centre that day to help out with Himesh’s situation. It was not clear what exactly he would be doing but perhaps he could give me some suggestions. Himesh instantly recognized Arun as the “NTP Uncle” as he used to visit the NGO with his father. Himesh was far more comfortable with Marathi and was chatting away with Arun. So I started talking to the nurses about what all Himesh has been doing. I quickly learned that none of them knew about the death of Himesh’s father and acted very surprised. They reasoned that Himesh probably did not want to tell them because he was very averse to going to a hostel, i.e. ashram.

At the mere mention of the word, “hostel,” Himesh began bawling. We quickly changed topics, but as I gradually came to learn, Himesh had previously lived in a hostel. His neglectful father and grandmother had placed him and his brother in separate hostels, but his brother’s whereabouts are unknown as of now. Himesh’s experiences in this hostel were nothing short of terrifying. In the hostel in Badlapur, he and twelve other children were used as slaves and spent their days performing hard labor. When they worked too slowly or did not listen, they were badly beaten and repeatedly placed underwater. It came as no surprise that he wanted to have nothing to do with leaving the hospital and to strange place where God knows what happens…It was in this hostel that Himesh became very ill and fragile and he attributed his sickness to having been there.

When he used to live with his father on the station platform, Himesh was often beaten by the police. Paying the bills for his mother’s end-of-life treatment had rendered them homeless, and the same people who were there to serve and protect could only batter and banish. Where else would they have gone?