Stepping up from the streets

Photo Credits: PG1. LEAD

I don’t quite know how to explain all that is inside me. Even if I write it all down or make a movie, it will never end. The power of India and the freedom of life is what I call Bombay. It is magical. It is the rainbow where you see all the colours. Every minute there is a story to know – and to share. I am going to share my life story with you because I am because of you,” – said Amin Sheikh on December 1, 2010 – the day he started his book.

It’s a common story, but with a very uncommon end. The writer openly talks about his past without being ashamed of what he was. Incidentally, the book has turned out to be a best seller. Translated in eight languages, this book that Amin Sheikh wrote about his life – ‘Life is Life, I am because of you’ – has touched the hearts of many in India and abroad. Through direct sales, Amin has sold 12,500 odd copies till this day – add to this other indirect sales through Flipkart, Amazon, publishers and bookstalls. The first-time writer in his debut book, vividly shares his dream of opening a library café in the city he was born – the city of immense possibilities – Bombay as Mumbai was called then when story of his childhood on the streets, unfolds.

Today Amin Sheikh, 36, has made peace with his past and is living his dream. To start ‘Bombay to Barcelona Library Café’ in Mumbai was his dream and it just got fulfilled on August 15, 2016, albeit with the help of all those who shared his dream equally – of offering a space for the street children to work and earn a life of dignity – a life with fairness, freedom and without fear!

This is fairy tale, although there is a happy ending of sorts. Instead it’s bold, blunt and is the naked truth. This story takes one onto a journey in the darkest of alleys. A street child himself, little Amin experienced the hard, harsh world but thankfully life did not leave any bitter taste in his mouth. Today when he looks back he remembers the goodness of those whom he met in his journey more vividly than the bad, evil and nastiness that came his way.

Amin had numerous encounters with the dirty and ugly face of life since he was four or five. The eldest of three siblings, he grew up in a slum with an alcoholic father and a helpless mother, amidst poverty and hunger. Surrounded with fights and frustration, little Amin witnessed the separation of his parents as his poor, weary mother left his father, taking the kids to another house where she lived with another man. A stepfather entered Amin’s life, a man who knew only to beat him every now and then. Amin was pushed towards child labour at the tender age of five. “I used to deliver milk bottles to people’s homes, or sell something on the road or work in a small factory. Then I went to work in a tea shop, where I had to serve tea to everyone and then wash the glasses. At the end of the day the shop owner gave me two whole rupees, at that time, big money, especially for my mother and to the other man, my stepfather,” recalls Amin.

“I supplied tea to factory workers who made fun of me. My tea stall owner would twist my ear if I broke any glass. My stepfather would beat me for every small reason. Overlooking my complaints of pain and insults my mother would coax me to go to work the next day and earn to feed the family,” recalls Amin.

Then one day as he sets for the factory with glasses of tea, he stumbled and fell, breaking all his glasses. He could neither go to the factory since he had no tea, nor could he face his enraged owner. He could go home only to get beaten badly. So he ran away – and landed up on the footpaths of Mumbai.

Living on the footpaths and in railway stations, five-year-old Amin begged, borrowed and stole, to live. For three years he survived on the mean streets of Mumbai, begging, polishing shoes… eating off discarded food, and sleeping in fear under park benches or crawling into hidden corners of railway stations to save himself from evil people. Nights were scary for this little boy as the big boys on the streets, drug addicts and strangers molest him, rape him.


Three years later an angel appeared in the form of Sister Serafina, who befriended him and took him to Fr Placido Fonseca at Snehasadan, a home for homeless children. Things began to change. Amin went to school and gradually grew up in the warm shelter of dedicated people who lived their lives for these street children. “There were children from all over India. Yet it wasn’t strange. It was like a home. I had my freedom. Nobody stopped me from doing anything and there were no walls, no gates,” Amin says.

Then one day, years later, he got his driving license and is sent to work as chauffeur-cum-Man Friday to a close friend of Snehasadan, Eustace Fernandes, who welcomed him in his home ‘Amore’ and treated him like his own son for more than 12 years, until he passed away in 2010. “My longest journey was the one that Eustace Fernandes took with me. He passed away on March 10, 2010. I will always remember that in my life I am who I am because of him and many more who were and are with me today,” Amin speaks his heart filled with gratitude.

While at Snehasadan, Amin wanted to become a professional football player, but did not have shoes. “I had to play the role of a paper boy and run every morning to deliver papers to 250 homes, until I could save enough to buy a pair of shoes, which ultimately I never did. I played football without shoes. It was my favourite game and is still. The greatest Christmas gift came from Eustace when he took me to Barcelona,” he remembers fondly.

Once a homeless Amin, today, has many homes in many hearts. He has travelled to many countries and has friends all over – in India and abroad, who welcome him in their homes, in their lives. Goa for him, is close to his heart, because his friend Eustace had a home here. Amin makes his living by operating Sneha Travels in Mumbai. His positive spirit turns his clients to be his friends forever. He runs a café in Andheri too. Knowing that there are still many homeless Amins like him out on the streets, yearning for someone to reach out and help, Amin hopes that they will not be left alone and will be taken care of by him and others like him. He has dedicated his book and his life to the street children of the world.

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Keynote speaker

• Amin Sheikh will be coming to Goa to share his experiences as a 36-year-young entrepreneur at the Goa Region BNI Award Nite on Saturday, October 15 at Taleigao Community Hall. 3 pm onwards. He will be the keynote speaker along with two diverse and passionate speakers – Jeroninino Almeida, a life coach, an inspirational orator and the author of ‘Karma Kurry who is co-authoring the book, ‘Mann ki Baat’ with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Manoj Caculo, proprietor of Caculo Group who will shed light on his journey into business expansion and diversification

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His life story

• Born in a slum, Amin Sheikh ran away from home when he was five, spending three years of his life on the streets of Mumbai only to be picked up by Sister Serafina who put him into ‘Snehasadan’, a home for the homeless changing his entire life.

• Surviving on scraps of goodness Amin makes it from a street child to a successful entrepreneur and an author. Dedicating his book to Snehasadan and to every street child in the world, a thankful Amin pens down his journey – ‘Life is Life, I am because of you,’ translated in eight languages and a best seller in India and abroad with 12,500 copies plus sold

• Amin operates a tour and travel business – ‘Sneha Travels’ wherein he caters to international clients taking them on a city tour that’s far more different from the picture postcard Mumbai that we see and know

• He opened a coffee shop – ‘Bombay to Barcelona Library Café’ at Andheri, Mumbai on August 15, 2016 worth Rs 30 lakh. Run entirely by the street children, it offers them a life with dignity and to Amin, the joy of giving