The residents living on 45 Shirak tell us myths that there is a family living near the rails of the Yerevan-Sevan railroad. They say that that family is homeless. The family used to live in a kiosk, but the owner kicked them out. Now there is an electric post just 4-5 meters away from the rails of the railroad where there is neither a window, nor a door-just four walls. The family members have entered that, the so-called “under railway”, and live there.
Many don’t believe this, but those who do say: “You can’t go there. There is no road-it is a desert. You have to make your way around the rails, there is a small hill. You have to go down the hill and then go up to the next hill through the rails. Only dogs live around there; many aggressive dogs. They will attack you because they’re hungry for meat.” I go there. As I make my way through the shacks, I find myself in a deserted territory where all I see is burnt trash. The gate made out of metal wires, which is to protect people getting close to the rails, has a passage. I make my way out of the passage somehow (I’m lucky that the metal wire did not get in my eye). I go through the rails. There is nobody there, just aggressive, hungry dogs. I can already see the “under railroad”. One of the dogs is yelling at me and at the same time, a boy with a furious look on his face comes out and screams: “Don’t come near me. Don’t do anything to the dog. Don’t come any closer. I know who you are. Get out of here. Stay where you are, don’t move or else I will treat you severely. I know who sent you. If you come any closer I will treat you bad.” The boy’s grandmother comes out of the “under railway” after getting shocked of the boy’s tone. After a moment of silence, the grandmother says “come here my girl, how did you know that there was someone here?” But the boy gets angrier. “Don’t let this person go. He is from the police department; they sent him here to get me. I am telling you not to get any closer. Do you see this dog? This dog can eat people, I’ll tell it to attack you. Don’t think this dog is not dangerous. It bit my brother’s arm and tore his meat up. Aren’t you afraid?”…The grandmother tries to calm the boy down-but in vain. She turns around and calls someone else: “Gevorg, hey Gevorg. Come here and take your brother away.” I am standing in the middle of the rails and they are near the “under railway”. We are anxiously waiting for Gevorg. Gevorg comes, his grandmother whispers something in his ear and Gevorg yells at the boy. The boy looks more furiously at me and says “I know who you are. No matter what, I am not going to let you come this way. Gevorg is ashamed of his brother’s manners and almost slaps him when the boy runs away. Gevorg and the grandmother calm down and call: “Come here, my girl. How did you find us? What made you get interested in us? Gevorg, they found us. Can you imagine? Somebody actually passed this road to find us.” I approach them with the fear that sooner or later the boy will pop out of somewhere. The grandmother keeps telling me not to be afraid of him. She tells me that his name is Vilik. They used to call him Vilikan when he was younger (meaning large), but they don’t call him that now because he is no longer large. Vilik is 15 years old and is scared of everything. The dogs around the area are aggressive and Vilik is scared of them too. Vilik’s grandmother says that Vilik used to sell gum at metro stations when he was a kid just to earn some money for food. He doesn’t go to school because he prefers selling gum to make a living. One time, the police forbid him to sell gum at the metro stations and kicked him out. Vilik went against the policemen without fear and continued to earn money the same way. Vilik’s grandmother says: “That time, the policemen took him out of the metro so that he wouldn’t sell gum. But the child once again went into the metro to make money. The police went after him with weapons and since that day he has been scared of everything. He is scared of everyone and thinks that those police are still after him. You are just a stranger here. You weren’t supposed to come here. How did you find this road?”
“Earthquake, run!”
65 year old Siranush is from Gyumri and a very kind grandmother. She lives “under the railway” with her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren-Gevorg and Vilik. They wanted to come to Yerevan a long time ago because Siranush’s son used to work here. After a while, they had decided to go back to Gyumri with the thought that each person must live in the place where he or she was born. They move all their belongings back to Gyumri. The earthquake took place after a couple of months but fortunately, the family was at the market at the time and they were saved. Siranush lost many of her relatives. Her house collapses and the belongings turn into dust. “….All the things I had bought through hard work. I was thinking to myself that I would die peacefully knowing that my children had what belonged to me. I worked all my life so that they could be secure. Everything turned into dust in one second. I had so many things…..if you know how residents of Gyumri are, then you know that we like to buy the best quality of things.” After the earthquake, Siranush moves to Yerevan with her family which had barely survived. They settle down on Shirak street. A woman working at a kiosk on the street feels pity and offers them a place to stay at the kiosk temporarily. During that time, Siranush’s sculptor son doesn’t take all the hardships of life any longer and leaves. Nobody knows where he is to this day. Many years have passed, yet the sculptor’s children don’t know if their father is alive, if he is in Armenia, or….The burden of raising the children falls on Mrs. Siranush’s shoulders. By trying to survive for days, going from here to there, they find a small house with four walls, neither a door or a house, connected to the railroad.
They only found electric wires and trash inside the house…They enter the house and find nobody there. The family lives there for a couple of days with the fear that sooner or later people will come and take them out of the “under railway”. Weeks roll by but nobody comes by. Mrs. Siranush decides to clean up the trash and live there and that is just what they do. The wagons that pass through the rails, which are so close to the house, give a sudden shudder, the ground shakes and the family thinks that another earthquake is underway. “Earthquake, run”. “We run out with underwear and a t-shirt in fear but then we realize that it is not an earthquake, but rather the house is shaking due to the heaviness of the train.” Then they get used to those shakes too. After a while, station workers find them there. The train wagon traveling from Sevan and full of black oil, turns over right where the family is living. Fortunately, the family members do not get injured and nothing happens to the house. However, the wagon driver sees that there are some people living in the house near the switchman’s station. The station workers explain that that house belongs to the people living “under the railway” and that house is foreseen for the on-duty work of the switchman. After long conversations, the station workers enter the house, see how the family lives and they become silent. They bring a crane and lift the wagon somehow. They take out the wooden parts of the broken rails, give them to Grandma Siranush’s family and say “Burn them, get warm and live”. The station workers tell their colleagues about this family from Gyumri living under the railway and describe what they have seen. The station workers get so touched that they decide to give the switchman’s station all to them.
The aggressive dog bit the skin off
Currently, Vilik sells gum, crossword puzzles and napkins in the metro with his mother. As for Gevorg, he is working by transferring metals. Gevorg is kind, exhausted and pale. He says: “I have been working for three months and still haven’t received a salary. My boss says that they haven’t even paid him. When they do, then he will give me my money. But how can this be? I am transferring metal, doing my job and want my money. I am not begging for money. I can barely load all that metal and can’t take it anymore. I drink my tea in the morning and wait for food in the evening, if of course, Vilik and my mother earn some money for that.” They don’t even bother using the wood from the broken rails as firewood and plan on burning the wood when it gets colder. Grandmother Siranush’s foot hurts and she can’t work, but she does have organizational skills. For example, she planted some trees in the summer and has even managed to make some jam from her cherry crop. She doesn’t receive pension because she is registered in Gyumri. Her passport has remained under the ruins after the earthquake and she has no money to go to Gyumri to get a new one. “Gevorg is 25 years old. He is a very good, smart and hard-working man. One day, one of the aggressive dogs around here attacked him. The dog had bit him with his teeth so hard that he ripped his skin off. Now there is this hole in his arm and the wound remains. Well, we can’t take him to a doctor. Doctors say that when an aggressive dog bites, all you can do is take a shot against tetanus. When those dogs bite and if you do not take your shot, either you will die or the dog will. Ever since that day Gevorg has turned aggressive. If you don’t make him angry, he is nice. But when he gets mad…you can’t do anything to stop him.” Grandmother Siranush looks stressed out, but today there is some light in her eyes because someone has paid a visit to them. Grandmother Siranush is amazed and wants to talk for hours, share her feelings and feel alleviated. She understands that I am saddened by hearing her story and consoles me: “Well, thank God that we have somewhere to live now. I am not complaining. God says “Be satisfied with what you have”. Thank God, at least we are living.”