Maik

Maik (40) / Magdeburg / Mechanic

Absolutely not sure whether I should post this image. But I am still publishing it because I saw Maik in an unforgettable and very painful condition. Maik gave me full permission to put his pictures in public domain.

I was sitting outside railway station when I saw Maik. His trouser was in his feet. He was smoking but unaware that cigarette was unburnt. He looked very weak. His whole upper body bent when his mouth tried to reach for the cigarette. He was in such a shocking condition that I couldn't even look at him for long.

Then I saw Maik coming towards me. All eyes were on him when he walked in underwear with the trouser in feet. He took some time to cover little distance between us and finally sat next to me. He spoke few broken words which I didn't understand. Though one thing I understood correctly was he wanted to have a belt to tie his trousers. Since I don't wear belt, I couldn't help him. I bought him a pack of cigarettes and listened to him for a while.

Maik (40) is a repair mechanic. He has two children, a son of age 17 and a daughter 19 years old. He has an apartment where he lives alone as none of his children and his wife live with him. Maik hates Magdeburg from all perspectives.

Though Maik didn't tell what problems he had in the life but he looked in pain. He had bloody scars on his face, and his drunk eyes were hurting. Before I left he asked me to leave him to his apartment. When we were walking his trouser dropped again. With the people around I felt so shame. I couldn't find anything else except a long band that was attached to my stop watch. I pulled his trouser up and managed to have it fastened with the band.

We walked on and on. Sometimes I had to hold Maik from falling. Once he took a wrong street and on the turn collapsed at bike-parking rack. Fortunately I was able to grab him otherwise he might have broken his ribs. Second time he hit his head against the wall corner. From then I tightly held him together during walk. After passing through dark streets, he stopped in front of a building entrance and said this was his house. I asked him to open the door, but he was speechless by then. He collapsed on the stairs. I asked his family name and confirmed his name was written outside. I asked again for the keys as I wanted to leave him inside but he wouldn't answer any question.

I left him sleeping on the stairs. After few steps, I returned and gave him the sandwich that was given to me by new German friends whom I met at railway station.

Returning through dark streets, few questions popped up in my mind.

"Will Maik sleep well in the night?"
"Why did he not go inside?"
"Why is he suffereing?"
"Why is he living alone?"
"Will he be able to open the band I tied around his trouser? in case he wants to pee"

No answer except the truth that, "he was suffereing and in his eyes I saw whole humanity suffering".


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P.S: I crashed another hard disk (500 GB) today. No backup for last 3 weeks except photoshopped files. All originals gone????
First hard disk crash, Second hard disk crash. Before it didn't hurt as much as it did now. In the past few weeks I had taken hundreds of portraits and hardly took any backup. It almost kills me :-(