Red Cross gifts hearing aid to ‘Chatro’

Archit Watts

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Tribune News Service

Muktsar, October 10

Punjabi comedian Surjit Kaur ‘Chatro’ of the popular ‘Atro-Chatro’ series today got free hearing aid from the District Red Cross Society.

Chatro’s younger son is a labourer at her native village Tharajwala here and elder son works at the PGIMER, Chandigarh.

Chatro said, “I belong to a Dalit and landless family having little resources. My husband was also a labourer, who passed away about two years ago due to prolonged illness from some deadly disease. All I earned in my life is my house, which I built a short time ago.”

Elated after getting the hearing aid, she said, “Now, I can hear clearly. Earlier, I was facing difficulty while hearing. I don’t have money to live life of an artiste. I have seen poverty throughout my life. Despite being septuagenarian, I still perform in some television and radio programmes.”

She said earlier a Congress leader had helped her financially.

Corroborating the facts, Prof Gopal Singh Makkar, secretary, District Red Cross Society, Muktsar, said, “Surjit Kaur ‘Chatro’ had come for the second time to our office today to get the hearing aid. She was not having the documents required and medical certificate. But when she told me about her poverty, I spoke to the Deputy Commissioner keeping in mind her contribution to the society through her satire. Thereafter, we gave her the free hearing aid, which costs approximately Rs 1,000.”

Meanwhile, some locals of Tharajwala village, too, said Chatro belonged to the family of labourers. Chatro’s relative Sukhvir, who today accompanied her to the Red Cross Society’s office, said they had come here to visit the house of a relative.

Chatro’s partner Saroop Singh ‘Parinda’, known as ‘Atro’ or ‘Chachi Atro’, had passed away in March last year. Both had started acting in the “Atro-Chatro” series in late 1980s.