The sun was about to set. I was walking in Beverly Hills and looking around to get some nice views of golden light falling on the Hollywood sign. All the popular culture I consumed all these years, was mostly made here. It was pretty underwhelming I must say.
I walked over and across the famous stars in the Walk of Fame, most of the names were unfamiliar to me except for Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Lopez and Drake. As I walked further, The smooth and shiny granite flooring soon turned to the usual poured concrete one; a very typical feature of the American sidewalks. Having a more sustainable set of ideas I once wondered about the magnanimity of the concrete used in the sidewalks. Anyway, I was walking across that path, with Hollywood sign peeping from some vistas on my left. The sun was orange juxtaposing along with the yellow traffic lights and tall palm trees in the background. That was California for me. An image created by popular culture and much less, GTA San Andreas, the only game I loved.
I stopped to compose the pictures with those three elements. Suddenly somebody shouted from my right.
“Take a picture of me with this American flag”
This was the first time someone in the US asked me for the picture. I am pretty used to it back in India, where almost everyone on my field trips asks for their picture and then a copy of it on their WhatsApp, if not a printed one.
He was a man with a decent grey beard, big eyes, wearing loosely fit pants, running shoes, and a blue bag. He was almost looking like a homeless man, except for the trademark shopping cart used to keep the belongings..
“Take a picture, I mean it, please do”
And he stood saluting the American flag which was a prop used on the grills of a parking lot. The grill tall enough to keep the homeless out. I took my film camera, balanced the exposure and took a photo. While I was taking the photo he said he was Leo Afshar from Persia and had been in the country for thirty years. I was still in my photo mode, wondering if I got the right exposure on my 31st film of the 36 exposures available. I was balancing the economy of thoughts between taking another picture to make sure I got it right or to save a shot for another important moment. But if I did another picture, the whole naivety of the moment would’ve been lost.
While in that second there was a train of thoughts passing through my mind, Leo joined his hands, said khuda hafiz, and left.
This is rare when the person who asked for the photo didn’t ask for the copy.
I crossed the street and started walking towards my left, hoping for a nice view. The sun was setting and golden sunlight was directly falling on the hill where the logo was. It’s said that it was Hollywood land before a landslide which took the ‘land’ with it. I walked till I got a clear picture. But there was a situation. The sign was in the third layer of the frame, before it, was a flyover and before that was a slum with considerable amounts of tents. In order to get a clear picture, I had to cross the road under the flyover.
Somehow, I skipped the idea of going and took a U-turn to go back to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I walked from one end to another, while the sun was setting and the sky turned from grey to warm to blue to dark. I was thinking about Leo, and wondering who he was and why he was interested in having a stranger take his picture with the american flag. Given the rising tensions between the two nations.
While walking back through the arcade of neon lights, souvenir shops, excited tourists and costumed men and women, I had a quick glance at Leo, crossing the other way of the street. We crossed paths, he didn’t notice me.
I am really slow at taking action. So I did not stop him, but observed him for sometime, having conflicting thoughts if he was a homeless or an actual low budget tourist from Persia.
He stopped by a window of a store and was looking at some souvenirs. In a moment he passed the store, waving a hi to someone inside. I walked across him and looked back and asked if he had an email i.d where I can send him the photo that I took. His smiled, it started from one end of his face to the other. His big Iranian eyes sparkled and the haze of blue light on his face turned into pink. We were standing near the atrium of an old theatre building. It was cinematic.
He asked me to open YouTube and search for his name, Leo Afshar. Soon he started telling me that his grandfathers were great Iranian Kings, his other grandfather was Ataturk, the king of Turkey. I could recognize Ataturk because Istanbul airport is named after him.
He asked me where I was, I said India. He exclaimed, said he thought I was from Paris. Then joined his hands, like in namaste and said he has his blood from India as well. He had many friends from India he made in the streets of Santa Monica. Some of them, also homeless, gave him food and shelter on the beach where he first arrived from Las Vegas. Apparently, his videos were uploaded on YouTube by his Indian friends. He asked me to contact them when I go back to India and he will ask them to give me a million dollars there. He even said that someone in Hollywood was even making a movie on his life. But broke the chain of thoughts and moved on to another thing about his family. I also lost that thought. Later while watching his youtube videos (where I contributed the 9th view), I got to know that he wanted to write a novel on his life.
I asked him what was he doing in that area. So he narrated his story. He was doing his schooling in Iraq and working at a shop when Saddam Hussain attacked his country. He fled to Istanbul where he survived on bread donated by generous Iranians and then to Germany where he stayed as a refugee but soon left for the US, fell in love with the nation and stayed here for almost thirty years in Dallas, Texas. He did odd jobs, driving trucks, working in restaurants while sending money home. When he turned 61 he decided to retire.
He left Dallas and reached Las Vegas where he spent some time volunteering at homeless shelters, cleaning mattresses and understanding more about Christianity. He said that he had been trying to get his retirement benefits but it’s difficult. Looking for that, he went to the social security office in L.A and they gave him 240$ to buy burgers, fries, and ‘cigarettes’. He felt proud that he is one of the rare homeless who doesn’t drink but only smoke. The money he got that was not enough, he said, implying that he got that amount about 4 months ago and now had almost nothing to survive.
I asked him where was he living in Hollywood, so he pointed me to the left, “a few streets from here”. He probably mistook me as another homeless because I was asking too many questions. So he started telling me about the safe areas in Hollywood. Pointing to a few streets near the place we were standing, he asked me not to go much further ahead because it gets really dangerous at night. Hollywood has seen an increase in the unsheltered homeless population. According to the LA homeless service authority, the unsheltered homeless in Hollywood itself has seen a shift from 610 unsheltered and 312 sheltered homeless in 2016 to 917 unsheltered and 266 sheltered homeless in 2019.
“The walk of fame street was safe because there are people and police vehicles. As soon as we go on the other side of the buildings, the real crime starts he said where anyone can harm you, steal your belongings. Believe me, I’ve seen worse”
He showed me a few streets that were safe to sleep and had benches without the anti-homeless dividers. You don’t get to see a lot of such seats in the states. The only other safe place to spend the night on the benches was Santa Monica according to him. There he can find some fellow Chinese homeless and sit on a bench with them and fall asleep, being in close proximity also helps retain the heat in colder nights. While he was getting convinced that I needed a place to spend my time, I assured him that I was staying with a friend of mine in the city.
A little relieved, he asked if I had enough money, ‘enough to survive’ I said. He said he had almost nothing but if I wanted some coins, he was willing to give whatever was in his pocket. While he was speaking, he put his hands in his pocket and took out a few quarters and nickels and offered me. I took a step back because he was so eager to give the money that I almost felt that he was going to put it in my hands. Elders in India do that. When you visit them after some time while leaving they put some money in your hand and close your fist, not letting you give it back. That continuous tussle of giving it back and the Dilemma of keeping the money while avoiding eye contact with my parents used to be fun back then. Here, I was seriously not considering taking any coins.
I asked him if I could take some photos of him, he said: “take as many as you can”. I asked him to stop, look in the lens directly. While I adjusted my focus and exposure and waited for the right light to fall on his face, he stood still. I like making people wait for more than usual because after a time they drop their fake expressions and relax. As soon as I took his photo, he asked me to take a photo of him with the star at the walk of fame and sat next to it with a thumbs up.
We greeted each other a Khuda hafiz and started walking in opposite directions, to our lives, on the tracks we had chosen. While looking outside at the bustling city lights from the metro window, I thought about Leo and the situation between Iran and the U.S. Wars have never helped poor and it will not make any difference in the lives of Leo and thousands of other homeless in L.A and in America.
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