Balurghat, Aug. 27: Sushanta’s fingers deftly control the up and down arrows of the computer keyboard as he manoeuvres the racing car past his competitors on the monitor

Meet the 12-year-old Class VI dropout, who, along with a few of his friends, makes a beeline to the cyber cafe every evening after his day’s work is over to play computer games.

Sushanta, Partha, Ripon, Suman and Lakshman are all of the same age and come from very poor families living in the Silpara area of the town. They have been forced to drop out of school and earn money to supplement their parents’ income.

Right from the morning, the five boys roam around the town, stopping at the bus stand, the railway station and the markets, selling lottery tickets.

“We get a commission of Re 1 for each ticket sold. We usually get around Rs 100 per day from which we give Rs 70 to our parents and the rest we use to buy snacks and play games on the computer,” Sushanta said.

The boys said they have to coax and cajole people to buy the lottery tickets. Sometimes, they even have to run errands for free just to get the tickets sold.

By 5pm though, the boys are free and they gather at the cafe near the town’s bus stand. They are usually there, racing cars on the computer screen and bombing enemy targets, for another hour and more.

The owner of the cafe, Rana Sarkar, said the boys first came to his shop to sell lottery tickets.

“They would stand in rapt attention, watching boys of their age but from affluent families play computer games. Then one day, they approached me and asked me if they, too, could play the games.

“I could not refuse them because they have so few opportunities to have fun. I even take just Rs 5 per hour from these five, while others are charged anything between Rs 10 and Rs 20,” Rana said.

The five boys are often joined in front of the computer by eight-year-old Ganesh, an orphan who lives in a mandir in Balurghat. Ganesh, too, earns a living by selling lottery tickets.

Rana said the boys, who had never touched a keyboard till around four months ago, have now learnt the basics of handling a computer.

Sushanta said his father, Bablu Ghosh, sells curd on foot, carrying pots on a shoulder harness. “Some days, I earn less than Rs 100 and have to skip playing for many evenings,” he added.

Bablu Ghosh, however, appeared totally in the dark about his son’s activities in the evenings.

“We are very poor and I do not have the means to buy my sons toys and games. If he spends a little money to enjoy himself, I have nothing to say as long as he does not fall into bad company,” the father said.

He added that Sushanta used to stay at his maternal uncle’s home in Gangarampur before he left school and returned to Balurghat last year.