Sikander Singh Gill (fifth from left) during the unique celebration.
“MY LAST date with drugs was on January 21, 2014,” says Sikander Singh Gill (26) from Dhudike village of Moga. “This date also reminds me of what I did to my parents. I would beat up my mother every day for money. Still, she would plead with me to quit drugs,” says Sikander, who is now an anti-drug crusader in Moga.
Four years ago, in a bid to give hope to drug addicts and ex-addicts, Sikander began organisng a unique celebration. He celebrates his ‘drug recovery birthday’ and invites addicts and ex-addicts to tell them that there is a life beyond drugs.
“My birthday is in September but now I celebrate in January as since January 22, 2014, I have not touched drugs. For four years now, I have celebrated my ‘drug recovery birthday’ on January 22. Apart from counselling addicts in several camps and seminars, I invite them to this party to celebrate life. The way I was injecting seven-eight heroin injections a day till 2014, I wouldn’t have been alive had my parents not sent me to a drug de-addiction centre on January 22 four years ago,” says Sikander.
On the morning of January 22, 2014, when Sikander was lying unconscious in his bed after five injections of chitta (heroin), a team from a de-addiction centre from Himachal Pradesh took him away. “For two months, I would vow to kill my parents each day for sending me to the centre. Then one day, my parents came to meet me and I saw that my mother, whose arms were still bruised due to my beatings, was there to hug me. That was the day I woke up,” he says.
“My mother was suffering from blood cancer. Still I would beat her up for money. Her arms would be badly bruised but she would not give me money. I also used to beat my father mercilessly. I would even sell their clothes, washing machine, TV and other goods at home. My mother would hide at a neighbour’s home fearing that I would beat her up again after returning from college. Still, when they came to meet me at the centre, they were yearning to hug me,” he recalls. Both his parents are now no more.
At a time when several videos of addicts lying unconscious and reports of drug-related deaths are striking fear in other addicts, Sikander says that his effort is to make them believe that all is not lost. “My friends, some of them who too were addicts, bring a cake with ‘Happy Recovery Birthday’ written on it. They bring some addicts along whom we tell our stories and motivate them to quit drugs. That’s how we are celebrating this day since four years,” says Sikander who is also associated with groups such as Red Arts Punjab which is running anti-drug campaign through nukkad naataks and theatre.
Sikander holds a B.Tech degree in computer sciences. In fact, he was working at Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Polytechnic College in Ajitwal of Moga when he began using drugs in 2012.
“It started with liquor at home when I was in school. Then at the polytechnic college where I started working as network admin and lecturer, I started taking drugs. I would inject heroin eight times a day and lie unconscious in washroom. I would take money from students to leak question papers and supply chits in examination halls. That’s how money came to buy drugs. Then, one day, I was fired,” he recalls.
When it comes to taking drugs, Sikander says he was an “all-rounder”. “I have taken everything – heroin, injections, capsules, tablets, cough syrups – I made my body a garbage dump. My salary was Rs 7,000 a month only but I would spend Rs 3,000-4,000 a day on drugs. When heroin was not affordable, I would take cheap drugs… whatever was available,” he says.
Now, working as a financier, Gill says that he doesn’t want to hide his name, face or story. “In fact, if taking out a jaloos (procession) about my life saves even one more life, it is an achievement for me,” he says. A short film on his life, ‘An autobiography of recovered addict’, went viral on YouTube after which he started getting calls urging him to give motivational talks.