That Night was actually A Chilling Night !!!

I, Abhi, Saleem & Sohail started with 15 Blankets, 8 Jackets & with very few sweaters. We decided to start distribution on Medical College Road from Parivartan Chowk. We all anticipated that the stock we are carrying will be suffice but the moment we hit on roads we all were surprised to see the number of peoples sleeping on left & right sides of Footpath. We all used to travel on these roads very frequently be it day or night but we had no clue that such high number of peoples are homeless in Lucknow.

To identify the actual needy we slow down our Car speed. The picture became more scary when we saw people sleeping in this chilling 7 - 8 deg temp and they were actually sleeping on bare floor & they just had a bed sheet or Polythene to cover body. Their bodies were actually shivering in this frigid cold. 

We came out from our car and went close to one of them; He was almost awake and looking at us with lots of hope. He must be 50yrs of old man; he told us he native of some village of district Gonda and doing labour work in Lucknow. Cannot afford to have Rented House as it is going to cost atleast 3k every month which is close to 50% of his monthly earnings. Sohail asked him why don't you move to nearby "Rain-Basera"; he said it is already been occupied by local beggars & they behave like goons in "Rain-Basera". We covered his body with a Blanket. I could not explain in words how happy he was while accepting this. He gave blessings to us with both of his hands.

We four moved to next person he was a 70-75yrs old man having Praying beads in hand; he told us he is in Lucknow from Kheri and finding his daughter here. She was lost in Lucknow only. We offered him a blanket and the moment he accepted the Blanket he joint his both the hands and started reading Dua. The moment he finished he said I just had Dua for you four. And Allah will surely keep you safe & healthy. We were feeling really touched with his words.

And in next 15 mins we identified few more actual needy and distributed the Blankets, Jackets and Sweaters. Men, Women & Kids all were in need of this. More or less the story of everyone was same. Maximum of them were Labors, Rikshawala's or Cleaners. We utmost tried to offer stuff only to actual needy and not to beggars.  Nevertheless we cannot deny the fact few of them must be beggars or they will re-sell it but the happiness is we were able to help atleast few in Lakhs.

AB

29th Dec'15