Puri/Bhubaneswar: Strange are the ways of fate. Two friends studied together in college. One became a Police Commissioner and the other ended up being a beggar. This story sounds straight from a Hindi film but the two students we are talking about are Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi and his friend Shreejit Padhi.
On Friday, the Commissioner and some of his friends rescued their college friend who had been begging in Puri for the last couple of years.
Shreejit Padhi, a resident of Badasankha Nua Sahi in Puri district, was a brilliant student. He and Commissioner Sarangi were classmates while they were pursuing post-graduation in Economics at Ravenshaw College. After completing their higher education, they all got busy with their jobs and family lives, hardly getting any time to keep track of each other.
Shreejit aspired to crack the OAS examination but despite a lot of hard work, he did not get through. This took a toll on his mental health. He started loitering on the streets and ended up becoming a beggar, living on alms.
Commissioner Sarangi and some of his friends, somehow, came to know about Shreejit. All of them started searching for him and finally traced him moving along the Grand Road Friday. He was unkempt with matted locks and beard.
Initially, Shreejit was reluctant to go with them but later agreed after much cajoling. He was taken to Puri district headquarters hospital and subsequently to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack for treatment.
In another case, an engineer from Bhubaneswar used to beg in Puri until he was rescued by his family members recently. There are many beggars in the holy town of Puri and at least some of them are circumstance-driven, some locals observed.
