{"id":365,"date":"2006-07-05T09:51:46","date_gmt":"2006-07-05T09:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haysanta.am\/?p=365"},"modified":"2018-07-05T09:52:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T09:52:50","slug":"bradyaga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haysanta.am\/en\/bradyaga\/","title":{"rendered":"bradyaga"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Vahan Ishkhanyan<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy late mother would say: you love Raj Kapur so much that you will end up being a tramp one day,\u201d Avo remembers his mother\u2019s prophesy. Raj Kapur was a Bollywood star whose movies were very popular in Armenia in the 1970-80s. The \u201cTramp\u201d, in which he starred was always on the screens. Many know by heart the songs from this movie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mother was right. Whether it was the love of the film or the economic hardship of his country, Avo became a tramp . . .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avetik Khachatryan, 40, still sings songs from those Indian films. He also named his children from movie references. Hrach, is 10 (he named him in honor of Raj Kapur), and his daughters are Gita, 6, and Zita, 4, (from the \u201cZita and Gita\u201d movie). Even the birthmark on Gita\u2019s back is reminiscent of India\u2019s map. He calls himself and his son tramps (\u201cbrodyaga,\u201d in Russian) \u2013 brodyaga Hrach and brodyaga Avo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He loved Indian movies so much that in the \u201880s Avo learned to speak Hindi from Indian students and translated three movies into Armenian. He remembers the words of his Indian friend, which he says in Hindi and then translates: \u201cArmindar was right when he said that life is worse than death.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avo\u2019s life has also turned into an Indian movie. He has become a kind hero who is without a proper job, raising three children alone. He is not the father of the youngest of the children, but he considers it his duty to father her too: \u201cBlood doesn\u2019t count here,\u201d he says. His wife left him, leaving the children behind. Sometimes she pays visits and takes little Zita with her and then she brings her back again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the 1990s Avo\u2019s brothers ran into debts, sold their father\u2019s house and then left for Russia. Avo rented an apartment where he lived with his mother and worked at a construction site. He got married in 1994. A year later Hrach was born. His wife left but then came back and Gita was born, and again she left with Gita.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avo lost his job. He could no longer pay the rent. The two tramps \u2013 Avo and three-year-old Hrach \u2013 found themselves in the street, homeless and hungry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI knocked at somebody\u2019s door, a woman opened. I asked her to let me stay with her for one night because I had nowhere to sleep and felt sorry for my child. She asked if it was a new way of robbery. I told her I wanted to stay for one night and suggested that she tie my feet with a rope to make sure I wouldn\u2019t run away. She believed me, led me to the bedroom upstairs. And in the morning she gave me tea.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For two days Avo fed his child from garbage cans. Then he learned about bottle collecting.<\/p>\n

Avo joined the large army of the poor going from home to home collecting bottles and handing them to reception points for cash. \u201cFor many years I was collecting bottles with Hrach in my arms or in the pram. We have our own anthem \u2013 the song from \u201cTramp\u201d: \u201cGive way, they are calling you.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At first collecting was difficult. Many people drove him from their doorsteps and cursed him and some even wanted to beat him for knocking at their door. But now he has permanent residents who know him and keep bottles especially for him.<\/p>\n

Soon, he took a second \u201cjob\u201d. He dumps garbage that people leave on their doorsteps. Some pay 200 drams (about 50 cents) a month; others pay 50-100 drams a day. All in all, he manages to earn 5,000 drams (about $9) a month by dumping garbage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Occasionally Avo picks up odd jobs. Recently he hauled 39 sacks of sand up four flights of stairs. He was paid about $4.30.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For four years the \u201ctramp\u201d has managed to rent a 12-square-meter room in Yerevan\u2019s Nork district where he lives with his three children. There is no kitchen; the toilet is outside. It costs 8,000 drams a month. The landlord wanted to raise it to 10,000, but then he felt sorry for Avo and left it unchanged.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every morning Avo goes collecting and dumping, leaving his three children alone. Since Hrach began to attend school he doesn\u2019t go with him: \u201cI said, Hrach jan, you must attend lessons, you don\u2019t have to come with me anymore. If they ask you at school about your daddy\u2019s occupation, tell them he is engaged in commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avo hates to see winter. People don\u2019t drink so much in winter, leaving fewer bottles. He is often short the rent, and the electric bill grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, summer will come, everything will be alright,\u201d Avo says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Avo always wears clean clothes, a white shirt. He used to wash his clothes by hand. Now he has an old Soviet-type washing machine which residents gave him as a gift. It leaks water, but anyway it is better than doing laundry by hand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The single father manages enough for food, electricity and rent. The family\u2019s possessions, including cassettes with Indian songs and a small TV-set that has lost colors are gifts from residents.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vladimir Manukyan, who lives on Baghramyan Street, says that people like Avo very much: \u201cHe is a guy who will always lend his helping hand, he knows a lot, he is not a simple poor man,\u201d he says. \u201cI give him bottles and also clothes and equipment that I don\u2019t want to throw away. He has a son, Brodyaga. He used to come with him before.\u201d The residents do not know about his two daughters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is said in the Bible: I have dressed flowers in colorful clothes, but you, human being, if you love me as much as a mustard seed, honestly, won\u2019t I be all the more sure to clothe you?\u201d says Avo, without feeling that his life has given the Biblical passage a new sense.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Four years ago Avo asked his landlord to go to the village after his wife and ask her to come back. Before he went, the wife showed up with a newborn baby in her arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAvo came and said, \u2018Uncle Vagho, you see, there is no woman in the house, it is difficult, I want to bring the mother of my children back. Will you go to Lernavan to speak for me? Perhaps she will listen to you and come back\u2019,\u201d says the landlord, Vaghinak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few days later he looked out the window and saw a woman holding an infant. The wife came and stayed. Three or four months later she weaned the baby and left. Avo kept that child too. She calls him daddy, she hasn\u2019t seen another daddy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now his wife shows up once or twice a month: \u201cThe mother of the children is not 100 percent, she is a 30-percent mother,\u201d says Vaghinak. \u201cWhat will be their end now, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Indian movie continues, with good and bad people, love and betrayal, compassion and cruelty. . . And the \u201ctramp\u201d, who dumps garbage and picks bottles, and waits for the happy ending.<\/p>\n