At 70,when people call it a day,this rickshawpuller looks for a living

The septuagenarian,however,is unperturbed. “I have to fend for my wife and two daughters. I cannot beg.”

Ask him why his daughters,who live with their mother in a village in Gonda district near Lucknow,don’t work to support their old parents and he replies that as the government schools in his home town don’t provide good education,his daughters could not study much.

“Both of them are young. How can I send them to work in somebody’s house,” he says worried. Tiwari has been in Chandigarh for close to 40 years now.

His biggest mistake,Tiwari admits,has been not moving his family here from Uttar Pradesh.

For almost four decades,he has been sleeping in the Sector 18 market,near Tagore Theatre. “Other rickshawpullers tell me that if I had made a jhuggi here when I came,I would have got a small house by now. They are right. But neither did my family express a wish to come to Chandigarh,nor did I ask them,” he recalls.

“Education in Chandigarh are good. Had I got my daughters here,they would have gone to a good school and perhaps working today,” he muses.

Despite his age,not working is something the rickshawpuller cannot consider. “I can ask a friend for a meal one day,but I can never beg,steal or cheat anybody. It’s not a question of lying to a human being. It’s about lying to God,” he reasons.

Tiwari still has injury marks on his forehead and elbow,after a speeding motorcyclist hit him a few days ago. He is,however,unfazed by the injuries. For Tiwari,it’s all a day’s hard work,as he gets back on his rickshaw and ferries products for a few rupees that will add to his earnings for the day.