One who finds pleasure in returning lost article

KOZHIKODE: His days are usually spent in the casualty counter or in the busy lifts full of patients and their relatives of the medical college. But by the time his day ends, he finds a number of lost things with him. Ration cards, passports, election identity cards, sometimes odd letters and thrown away medical bills. Anilkumar, who is a lift operator at the Kozhikode Medical College, has been acting as the patron for the people who have lost their belongings, for the last four years.“I know how it feels when we lose something valuable. It  may be a piece of paper or a document. I started to collect the lost things after I lost my identity card years ago,” says Anilkumar. What was started off as a small gesture of good faith, has now turned into a part of life for him. His colleagues also help him by handing over such articles which they find on the Medical College premises. He gathers information from the article or document about the owner and sends them a postcard asking to come and claim it.“It is not at all a burden for me. The only thing I do is to let people know that their article or document is with me and they will come and claim it,” says Anilkumar. He has already returned around 400 lost articles in the last four years and still has more than 100 articles with him waiting for the owners.“One day, I found a bunch of keys which had a phone number attached to it. I called up the number but it was inactive. After a couple of days, I called again and could inform that the keys are with me. The person who came to claim it was in tears by the time I handed over the keys. The keys belonged to his father who had passed away a couple of days ago,” said Anilkumar. He also gathers money that he finds lying in various places (even from the bottom of a well). He has found `1,000 to 50 paise coins from here and there. His collection is now around `9,000. “I am planning to give the money to the Pain and Palliative Care unit at the Medical College Hospital. I am waiting the collection to reach `10,000 to make it a round figure,” said Anilkumar.