This man asleep under the flyover exchange near Melawati/Wangsa Melawati is mentally ill. I often see him pushing his pram all the way up along Jalan Jelatek, a very busy, soon to be multi- lane highway. I worry for him. While we are sound asleep in our comfy beds, taking our sanity even for granted, he sleeps here...
This woman makes her home nearby, by the side of the road also at Wangsa Melawati, as the pictures below show. She often cooks too, making a small fire for her pot of rice. I think she is also mentally ill, or just homeless. I am not sure. Could be the latter because she sometimes gets is half dressed like this. I guess she earns some money washing the pavement in front of the Cosway outlet near where she crashes. I haven't seen where she sleeps, but from the looks of her belongings in the next two pictures...by the roadside too.
I am tempted to call Welfare Services, but at the same time, I can understand how they would feel being ripped away from their routines, their familiar surroundings and their scant belongings...I really don't know what to do.
There is a third guy who walks for hours along Jalan Jelatek and Keramat Permai with a little pair of scissors...cutting the grass by the highway.
I do not know if he has a home...but he must be so exhausted...walks non-stop from morning till nite.
What defines sanity? Or insanity? People like these...are they insane? Or just helpless? What about those who are deemed sane, but murder, loot, rape, bomb and torture and hurt other humans, or break their hearts recklessly?
Who is really insane?
All I know is that there is a fine line between sanity and insanity...We can go either way, anytime.
10 comments:
Hello there!
I decided to come look up this mysterious tigress! Just had time to read this first post.
This looks so much like the India I visited last year. Rishikesh and Delhi. It was had to reconcile me having a holiday there, and their living that way. It was not easy to do at all.
Nice blog you have here. Will visit again. And you come back and visit ok?
The header - is a pix of Missy, my english bulldog, looking at my daughter and niece in the distance.
In PD, my second and much loved home.
Pat
Hi Pat!
This isn't my first post meh..hehe
Yes, must have been difficult seeing suffering while we come on holiday...but we have it here too, now you can see...
I love that pic...looks like the dogs view...cute dog (or rather back of his head...hehe)
Hello all,
It is sad our country and govt have grown cold to the helpless nowadays.Too much is stressed oneself and not helping those in suffering.I pray that one day,we would wake-up and realize that we all need to help others who ar like us as humans and not judge or else we would become uncaring beings in the future !
Hi Walter green,
Yes, we never know when one day we might be those in need...we pray we won't but we must not close one eye to these people's sufferings too.
Hi there Tiger.. Grrrrowll...! Yes, its often hard to reconcile what we see on the streets and pathways of our lives. Homelessness also exists here in the UK too. There's a welknown man who has similarly made his home under a flyover with carboard boxes. He even has pigeons as pets!
Most of the time, these people have left their real homes and families for whatever reasons and prefer the street. No matter what, they will not accept help maybe perhaps money or handouts. Insane? Dunno, sometimes we are the insane ones...go figure
Hi Londoner...
Hmmm...I never actually heard of people wanting to leave their homes. That is interesting.
The ones I came across in the US are those who have lost their jobs or succumbed to drink or mental illness.
The kinds I met are kinda like those in "the pursuit of happyness". Seen that one?
btw...steven, i got some fetish for self portraits nowadays...hehehe
Yes, each year many young teens run away from their homes and end up on the inner city streets because of fallouts between their families, or lure by unsavory characters.
Love your new moody portraits! Wahai!
Yes, Steven, we have runaways here too. Typical story every so often in the papers of girls running away with boyfriends. Sweet talking boyfriends or after arguments with parents. Ya...they don't know what awaits them on the streets. Sometimes too degil/or fear of parents' wrath stops them from going home even though they want to.
But the mentally ill, thay are quite helpless.
Sigh. To be praised by hotshot lensman (after fishing furiously for it..hehehe). My handphone is full of em portraits taken while sitting in the car waiting for kids to come out of school, or taken while I'm supposed to be working in front of this laptop...haha...love esp to play with the light, afternoon or artificial...saw my fb one ah...photography is fun meh when the mood strikes
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