When 65-year-old Kishan Kumar set out to work today morning taking his rickety typewriter with him, the last thing in his mind would have been the possibility of him becoming an internet celebrity. The elderly man, a daily wage earner from Lucknow, North India, however, is perhaps the most talked about man in India now , Indiatimes reports.
Kishan Kumar is a street vendor who sits outside the General Post Office in Lucknow and earns his livelihood by typing small letters and legal documents in Hindi using his trusty typewriter. He has been doing this job for the past 35 years sitting at the same place working 10 hours a day. He doesn’t own a shop or a property – the sidewalk is his workplace. For all his hardship, he earns a mere Rs.50 a day which is less than a dollar a day.
Earlier today, Kishan Kumar’s only source of livelihood – his typewriter was mercilessly destroyed by an arrogant cop who was ordered to empty the premises because of a VIP (Very Important Person) movement. The road opposite the Lucknow General Post Office caters to high ranking officials and ministers and occasionally, the vendors sitting there are forced by police officers to vacate the area for security reasons. The vendors comply every time.
However, today when a cop arrived on scene asking them to vacate the sidewalk, he was too impatient to let the old man take his typewriter away and move out. Even as Kishan Kumar was trying to take his old typewriter away, the cop gave it a kick that sent the machine flying. Kumar begged the cop not to destroy his only source of income. The merciless cop, overcome with his authority gave it another kick which completely destroyed the typewriter. A heartbroken Kishan was then seen taking the bits and pieces of the typewriter in a futile attempt to repair it.
The entire incident was caught on camera by a cameraman belonging to a local newspaper. He posted the images to Twitter and other social networks. The arrogant cop even posed for a picture and threatened the photographer. After the image was posted, the news quickly went viral and within the matter of a few hours, the chief minister of the state intervened and ordered the dismissal of the police officer involved. He also promised that Kishan would be given new typewriters.
#UPCM @yadavakhilesh has instructed SSP Lucknow to suspend the Lucknow cop who had beaten up an innocent wage earner at Lucknow GPO.
— CM Office, GoUP (@CMOfficeUP) September 19, 2015
These typewriters would be given to old man,who lost his only wage earning equipment today on UPCM @yadavakhilesh pic.twitter.com/mkwbsCWtas
— CM Office, GoUP (@CMOfficeUP) September 19, 2015
People started tweeting with the #justiceforkishan hashtag. People started pooling funds to help Kishan buy a brand new typewriter. By the end of the day, the police chief of Lucknow himself presented a replacement typewriter to Kishan Kumar and senior police officials apologised to the man for the cop’s behavior.
SSP and DM Lucknow met Kishan Ji and apologized for the unethical behavior of the policeman pic.twitter.com/dmmCdTBnE4
— CM Office, GoUP (@CMOfficeUP) September 19, 2015
On instructions of #UPCM @yadavakhilesh DM and SSP immediately visited Kishan Ji and handed over a new typewriter pic.twitter.com/180heCf8hd
— CM Office, GoUP (@CMOfficeUP) September 19, 2015
All this happened within a span of a few hours. Tomorrow morning, Kishan Kumar will be back to his usual workplace, the sidewalk opposite the lucknow GPO. Only this time, he will be accompanied by his new typewriter.
[Image Via Facebook]
