Beggars are not choosers but here public choose beggar to represent them

Beggars are not choosers but here public choose beggar to represent them. Apart from a beggar, Narayan Nat of the Shahbarsa village in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district now has a new identity, surpanch, gram pradhan or village head. This beggar had never dreamt of achieving the status he enjoys today. To Narayan Nat, aged around 60 years everything still appears like a dream. He cannot even now take as reality that the people who once drove him away are now giving him respect and talking to him in the most polite way. It's unbelievable to him even though it is the reality. Begging is his family business. From generations they are into it. He has confirmed that he is not going to take up any other medium for survival and will continue to beg as usual.He has no complaint to the almighty for making him a beggar, instead he is thankful to god as he gets sufficient alms and help from the villagers for survival.

Narayan Nat’s reaching the chair of village head is a very interesting story. The former village heads of all times had never performed satisfactorily in carrying out developmental projects of the village. This made the villagers think of making Narayan a candidate, as a sign of protest. They made Nat apply for the post as an experiment too. Nat filed the nomination paper for the post of Pradhan on the support of the villagers who helped him and family survive by giving alms. They campaigned wholeheartedly for him, managed everything and ultimately he emerged victorious, though there were 10 other candidates vying for the post of village head.

Some of the locals are helping him to do the work of a gram pradhan. Local journalists too have joined them in making him aware of his new job, as he actually doesn’t know about the responsibilities of a gram pradhan. The illiterate Pradhan is now learning to read, write and to sign on papers too!!!!.

He is getting a fixed amount of Rs.1,500 besides other financial grants for taking up developmental schemes in the village. It is worth mentioning that he spends his monthly honorarium for the development of the village. He doesn't have to worry about his survival as he knows he would continue to receive alms - may be more than the usual as people will now come to him in large numbers to get their problems addressed.