Slice Of Life: ‘Lost family, job, home, but I consider life a gift’

Chennai

My parents died when I was a kid. I have an elder brother and an elder sister. My family owned some property and my siblings took away my share of it. I started working in an export company where I had to work throughout the week. Two years ago, I met with an accident and broke my hand. Following this, I was fired from the factory. I was married with two children, but my wife was recently granted divorce and she took the children with her. I am now homeless. I sleep in the beach. I don’t even have a place to bathe. I have no one to support me. I hardly get any customer as my shop is in a remote area. I earn around Rs 300 per day but most of it goes away in purchasing materials to mend shoes. At the end of the day, I have about Rs 60 left to buy food twice. I have tried shifting to a better place like along the main road but there are lot of politics and pressure from others who own shops there and they force me move away. I have set up shop in this place mostly because of the shade. The owner of the house has already warned me several times to go away. Despite all this, I have not yet given up on life as I consider it to be a gift from God.