It's 5:30 a.m. in India, a time when most people will still be lying in bed, but for 20-year-old Nilesh Shikre in Susegado (leisurely-paced) Goa, it's the start of another hectic day delivering newspapers from his bicycle to Goan households.
His day will start with an excursion from his home in Panzorconi to Cuncolim bazaar -- a distance of one and a half kilometers -- to collect the newspapers from the Kunde Newspaper agent. From there, he will begin his deliveries with several households in Cuncolim.
It's a job Nilesh must perform despite rain or cold and despite his deformity.
When he was 11, Nilesh lost part of his left arm and his right arm stopped developing when he was electrocuted after meddling with the high-tension electricity wires that ran overhead of the two-room palm-leaf hut his family lived in.
But the accident has not deterred the Goan resident from carrying on his fight to lead a normal life. Outside his home, he grabs his bicycle with his left hand and with support of the right arm maneuvers it onto the road for his journey to Cuncolim village.
"I had no choice. I had to survive. I could not depend on others for long. Sometimes the adjustments and innovations I have made to use just a hand came about out of necessity. A few elders reminded me that if I do not make the necessary changes to cope up with my disabilities now then I will have to regret it at a latter stage. And at this time the danger bells rang in me, to act fast before it is too late to regret," he said.
The nerve endings in Nilesh's arms suffered irreparable damage. The doctors had to amputate his left forearm.
"I did not know the dangers of playing with electricity wires. I was too young and too ignorant to know the side effects of trying my stunts with the wires," he said of the accident.
Nilesh had lived a normal life until that fateful October day in 1999. As a result of the accident his world has been turned upside down. Without an education and without the full use of his arms he was unable to perform most jobs. The newspaper boy's job was the easiest option.
The accident was Nilesh's own undoing and largely the fallout of urbanization. The young boy was blissfully ignorant of the danger posed by the overhead electricity wires. He tried to catch hold of the wires one day by jumping from a nearby tree. He was thrown a few meters away by the shock of the high-tension wires. His arms had been mangled.
The Shikre family hails from the Gawli community, which generations ago settled in Panzorconi Cuncolim and whose profession was tending goats and living off the profits from the business.
Sixty years ago the Shikre family's goat's milk business was roaring, but today modernization has taken its toll. From maintaining around 200-300 livestock, the Shikres have now just 20-30 odd goats to manage. The returns from the business are barely sufficient for survival. The Shikres have been compelled to take other menial jobs to eke a living. They never went to school.
Before the accident Nilesh used to pluck coconuts, bring mangoes down through stones in the summer April to May holidays and occasionally help his family herd the diminishing livestock. He used to swim in the nearby rivulets and play football and cricket. He still plays football with local youngsters in the evening and manages to wield the cricket bat with his "deformed" hand.
"He is a good football player and used to be a good cricket player earlier," said Babloo, Nilesh's 17-year-old brother. "But now it is difficult for him to play cricket as his arm has refused to develop after the accident, which makes it difficult for him to take a proper stance to face the cricket ball."
But more than playing cricket and football, Nilesh's well-wishers fear that he needs an expert opinion on the damaged arms lest he lose what use he has now. Of course, that would require more money than he is able to save as a newspaper boy
