It was Ekadashi and hundreds of people were on parikrama.
They were surprised that no one had stopped and done anything. He seemed unconscious, even dead.
By the time the FFLV staffer got there, the man had regained consciousness. Some people who lived on the second floor of the ghat said that it seemed he had been given an intoxicant and robbed.
They had been trying to revive him by making him drink water several times throughout the day yesterday.
During the course of the night he had vomited and his mouth was also covered with vomit and blood. His clothes were soiled with excrement, vomit and blood.
He was still in a very intoxicated state and refused to go with our FFLV workers to a hospital.
As he was very frail and old our workers were hesitant to take him forcibly. He was in a state of shock and resisting with the last bit of energy he had left.
Finally, a glass of lassi with salt was offered to him and he seemed to recover a bit.
He was unable to tell us who he was or where he had come from
FFLV’s staff arranged a clean place for him to rest and decided we would come back later.
In the evening, our people went back and found that he had mustered enough, though actually barely enough, energy to walk. He was still in a daze and kept falling but still refused to go to the hospital. He was still in a state of shock and fear and extremely distrustful.
However after some more lassi and biscuits and after a few hours of being reassured by our workers he settled down and was speaking more coherently, but in an unfamiliar dialect. Our staff offered him a fresh set of clothes which he accepted
. He was left in the care of some kind Brajbasis for the night.
On Sunady morning we learnt his name and story. Shivlal, over 70 years of age speaking an in an unfamiliar dialect managed to tell us that he had come to Mathura and Gokul to get some Yamuna water.
He kept repeating over and over how he had never expected that a holy place could have such bad people. He realized he had been duped by strangers who laced something they gave him to drink and then stole all his belongings.
On Monday we had him discharged from the hospital and presently we are making arrangements to get him home.
Unfortunately , there are several villages with the same name in different states of India, so we have to figure out exactly where he is from , which at this point is still unclear
The situation compels some thinking. Why do people just walk by and not try and do anything?
The people residing at Keshi Ghat , who tried to help as best as they could told our workers that this happens so often. Old destitute people, those that seem like they will die at any moment as it appeared to be in the case of this old man are often just dumped under this sheltered part of the ghat.
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