Losing dreams….Losing life ….losing future ...all just in a sniff
For me it has been a month of repeatedly losing my way in the unfamiliar territory of thoughts. It’s eating me like hell and finally I thought of writing it down though I am well aware that it’s not going to help me in any way.

Everyday in the evening I notice them on my way back to home from office. Their grim faces drooping over hunched shoulders are always there…..on the pavement just a few yards from the traffic signal at the junction of Panchkuian road & outer circle of Connaught Place.

Men, women & kids, all covered in layers of dirt with flies soaring over their uncombed hair. Men, all in rags are either with stubble or with beard sticking to their fleshless cheek bones. Kids have their thumb in the mouth, running noses and wearing dirty underwear in the name of clothing. The women wear thick kohl in their sleepy eyes & metallic jewelry which is in contrast to their soiled apparels. For the first time when I watched them from a distance I thought them to be beggars ………but when I got closer I found that…… THEY ARE NOT BEGGARS.

It shocked me and a shiver went down my spine …….I was literally horrified when I found what they were doing………… Both men & women were mutually sniffing the white powder placed on a glossy silver paper under which a small candle like flame burned. I guess the powder which they sniff is probably cocaine or smack or any other thing which I don’t know but it is certainly a drug, which is illegally procured.

Watching them every evening for about ten to fifteen seconds has become a routine for me but the inner conflict & turmoil continues even after the place passes by. I often think about the circumstances which have made these people drug addict. May be their life was once as serene & as smoke free as ours. May be their addiction has resulted in their homelessness.

There are number of unanswered questions which I ask myself:
- Will these kids ever find a home & know what education and life is all about or will they just grow up on footpaths & end up sniffing drugs?
- From whom & how they get the drug? How they earn money to buy it or is it just that they do some illegal activities?
- Is not the local police aware of the things going around?

I don’t know what to do, should I approach them or should I consult any NGO before doing so. Every time I see them I feel that something in me is just breaking, something is terribly wrong, something needs to be done before its too late.