After the Directorate of Health Services, there is lane going to the Panjim market. On the other side of the lane, on the bank of the Panjim creek, there are two vintage structures of the Portuguese era: One is a big house and close to the house there a cone-shaped unit. Both the structures are closed. There are makeshift lintels fixed on the wall of the cone structure.
An old man has made the space under the lintels his home. He sleeps in a narrow space. He envelopes himself in sheets of cloths and curls up and sleeps. There are plastic bags, and clothes all around him. Some of his meagre belongings are hanging from the wall of the closed cone structure.
The other day it was raining heavily and he was there fighting against the monsoon rains. He was once the darling son of some parents; now he is there on the footpath, probably grieving over his fate in his sunset days.
In the government circles, there is a peculiar tradition: Unless somebody complains, no action can be taken. This is the escape route to inaction. The irony is that this man is lying on a footpath, which is less than 100 metres from the Directorate of Health Services of Government of Goa. Around him there is luxury everywhere — INOX Multiplex and a star hotel complex. But this man penniless and perhaps abandoned lies amidst plenty. He should have been placed in an Old Age Home so that his last days are spent in dignity.
