Stories of Patryachi Chawl

Sheru Shafi Shaikh Sheru. His real name was a bit difficult. It was something like Sarfarazzuddin. So people preferred calling him Sheru. He came to our chowl to stay with his maternal uncle. His maternal uncle who was one of the respected personalities in our chowl had his sofa making business. We came to know that Sheru, his brother Shamsher, his sister Sana and mother shifted to Pune because of his father’s death. Sheru father, people say, was a nice and hardworking chap. During 1991 Hindu-Muslim riot in Mumbai, his father was shot though his wasn’t the part of it. Some say that Sheru’s father was a drunk. I don’t know the reality. Sheru and family stayed with their uncle. All three kids got admitted in a municipal corporation school. Gradually, we came to know about Sheru. Sheru and his brother Shamsher used to help his maternal uncle in sofa making and they were learning to make simple and designer sofas as well. Sheru used to tell us, “Haath me kuch na kuch kala chahiye...

Dear Readers, Greetings!!! Welcome to Stories of Patryachi Chawl.  Life is full of surprises and shocks. We call these surprises and shocks as interesting stories. Everybody around us has a story to share, a story of his or her own to narrate, an incident to say and laugh on. But not everyone is equally talented in narrating the stories, penning them down and then further blogging it (just the way I do on my blogs).  Most of us who are browsing the internet and have visited my blogs do belong to the strata of the society that is far away from the world of people living in same. The intentional use of English language in this blog is to make us; the well-educated, well-cultured white collared people, see the lives of some extraordinary people living in a slum. Their stories would not be like yours and mine. Because their stories will have hunger, struggle for existence, everyday problems and so many things at their core. Their stories are stories of succe...