Manjari Mishra, TNN Lucknow: Begging, confides Narayan Nat, may not be a highly rated career choice but he won't swap it for anything else under the sun. Not even for the gaddi of village pradhan that he has come to occupy now. The 50-year-old widower, has been a professional, beggar since the time he re members and is absolutely unapologetic about it. ''A totally honest way to make money if you ask. It gave me everything... a roof over my head,a small patch of land to till, enough to keep my four children and 14 grandchildren well fed and clothed. And now the pradhani of village Sahawar Shah in Badaun, which came my way only because my patrons knew me personally and came to have faith in me," he told TOI. In fact, the candidature of Narayan during the panchayat polls zapped local officials. "It was a rather unusual choice," says Udaivir Singh, the tehsildar of Bisoli. Narayan, he says, emerged as the unanimous choice. Obviously fed up with other candidates, the villagers thought of giving him a chance. The man, says Singh 'with grudging admiration, "proved to be a tough contender among a dozen odd competitors.And a lucky one too...he did not spend a single rupee in the election and still emerged a winner". Narayan calls it divine intervention. "Goddess Lakshmi had been a little tight fisted in my case but her husband seems to have overruled her finally," he began with a phlegmatic laugh. The proposal did stun him at first, he confided. So love it or hate it, Narayan Nat has no intentions to quit begging. Both will have to go together, there is no clash, he emphasIzes.
[TOI, Goa, Pg. 9, 15/12/2010]