SHABIR KHAN, son of SHABBIR KHAN, 18 years

I am with my mother Guddee Bee for the Padyatra. i live in the Blue Moon Colony with my mother and with my younger brother Kallu and sister Shaibee. i was born in a village near Ganj Basoda and came to Bhopal last year.

I went to school till 5th class but the teacher didn’t teach much. When i was 10 years old I started working in a stone quarry near our village. I used to break stones with a 20 pound hammer. When the stones in the quarry were exhausted there was no work for me. My father used to do the same work, he died 13 years back when the truck full of stone in which he was sitting fell in to a river.

After my father’s death my mother came to Bhopal to live with her sister. The reason I came to Bhopal was to find some work because i was the eldest in the family and had to support my mother and brother and sister.

Our aunt Nafeesa Bee who is also with the padyatra used to live in Blue Moon Colony so I came to live with her. I could find work in building construction but there's no regular work.

I knew that the water in Blue Moon Colony was poisoned, it tasted very bad the first time I drank a sip. It was terrible but I had to drink it for four or five months. Then I started falling sick, vomiting and getting stomach aches and dizziness. I stopped drinking the hand pump water I always try hard to get water from tankers.

I have never played any games – would have loved to play cricket but I don’t even get time to watch it on TV also we don’t have a TV at home.

I have never joined any demonstration. Never found time for them even if I wanted to. I could come on this padyatra because there is no work for me for the next month.

What I like about this padyatra is the people who are with us. Walking with so many people is fun. My legs hurt from walking but I am getting used to it. I have a lot of hope that we will win, that we will get piped water.