Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,
Muzaffarpur, Bihar, 9 July: It’s around midnight. I am at home of a Muslim relative. His father is not fine, rather his condition is deteriorating. He is looking for help to rush him to hospital. He rings to a man — I hear his name as Santosh bhai. Within 10 minutes, Santosh bhai, the man in early 30s, appears on his bike. He asks my relative to cool down and have patience — everything will be alright. He rings to a doctor known to him. Interestingly, the doctor also reaches home in less than 10 minutes.
The way Santosh bhai attended the call of my relative and reached his home riding his bike at midnight and called in a doctor and the doctor responded to his call inspired me to know much about him.
Some days later, I met him and during the interaction he told me lot about him.
Santosh Kumar is just 32. He is a renowned social and political activist in the locality called Sadpura in Muzaffarpur town.
“I have been engaged in social service for the past 10 years. During the period, I have arranged marriage of at least 21 poor girls,” says Kumar sitting at home of a Muslim on Eid day. He had come to greet him on the festive day.
Not just marriage of the poor girls, he has also been helping in arranging final rites of poor people.
“Sohan Kumar, one of my neighbors, died at Surat station in Gujarat. He had gone there to meet a Hindu saint. The family had no money to bring his body back to Muzaffarpur. I came up and with my own money brought the body to the city and arranged his final rites,” tells Santosh, a college drop-out.
Despite his political affiliation, he has been helping all without any discrimination of caste or creed.
He had played a crucial role in bringing back the dead body of my own neighbour Neyaz from Hazaribagh. Neyaz had died in a road accident. Santosh, along with Neyaz’s brother, had gone to Hazaribagh to collect the body.
These days, Santosh is busy in rescuing a public well from an illegal encroachment. Last week, he, along with his friends and some senior people of the area, visited the site and asked the occupiers to vacate the well. His initiative is very important when several colonies in the city itself were living on water wagons from the city corporation as the water level had gone down.
