The Life And Death Of Mohammed Abdul Kasim Ali Shaikh 

“The worse I appear, the better it is for me. No one will approach me.” Repeatedly sexually abused as a child, Kasim grows up, homeless, lonely and HIV positive. Mohammad Abdul Kasim Ali Shaikh was repeatedly sexually abused as a child till he found a way to become his own protector. He was also HIV positive and worked as a rickshaw puller in old Delhi’s crowded, winding streets. He had known abuse, humiliation and the desperate ignominy of hunger all his life. He had access to food, shelter and medicines in a recovery shelter run by Centre for Equity Studies in Delhi.

Kasim died a couple of months after this film was made, a speeding vehicle ran over him as he slept on a footpath. He had developed a close bond with our cameraperson, Sandeep Yadav, in his last days. It is as though before he died, Kasim wanted to tell the world his story.