Yesterday, I met an 84-year-old man, Chotelal, near a bookstore at Rajpur Raod in Dehradun. He was feeding 7/8 dogs with biscuits and milk; All the dogs were surrounding him, they were excited to see him as they might have been waiting for their lunch. Chotelal was struggling to raise his head to see my face, his spine curves at the base of his neck. But, his spirit of life is much younger than I am.
Chotelal, retired from Forest Research Institute of India, earns 4000 as pension which he completely spends for feeding unprivileged people, and animals at Rajpur road. He is feeble due to ageing. When I offered him some money, he denied. He could speak fluent English better than I am writing here. His reply was exhilarating when I asked him that why is he doing this? “People nowadays don’t care for each other, but I am a man from old days when we cared for humanity.”
I asked him for a click; he struggled to stand straight and gave me a pleasing smile. I left with a promise to meet him again. I will tell the whole world about him.
– Submitted by Ankit Sharma