Film Star: Single father plays out his own role of “Tramp”

“My late mother would say: you love Raj Kapur so much that you will end up being a tramp one day,” Avo remembers his mother’s prophesy. Raj Kapur was a Bollywood star whose movies were very popular in Armenia in the 1970-80s. The “Tramp”, in which he starred was always on the screens. Many know by heart the songs from this movie.

The mother was right. Whether it was the love of the film or the economic hardship of his country, Avo became a tramp . . .

Avetik Khachatryan, 40, still sings songs from those Indian films. He also named his children from movie references. Hrach, is 10 (he named him in honor of Raj Kapur), and his daughters are Gita, 6, and Zita, 4, (from the “Zita and Gita” movie). Even the birthmark on Gita’s back is reminiscent of India’s map. He calls himself and his son tramps (“brodyaga,” in Russian) – brodyaga Hrach and brodyaga Avo.

Empties: The hard life of Armenia’s «bomzhs»

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At about 2 a.m., Artur goes to work. His «job» is collecting bottles in rubbish dumps near buildings.

«As soon as you touch rubbish you are a bomzh (vagrant) from that moment on,» says Artur.

Bomzh is a Russian abbreviation for a person with no fixed abode. Artur’s hand touched rubbish and he became a vagrant four years ago when he had no other sources of income and leaving his family and making friends with vodka he crossed the line separating society from vagrants.

«Yes, I’m a vagrant. I’m a person of no fixed abode. I have no fixed place to live.»

In Armenia vagrants appeared during the years following independence — a result of hard economic conditions and of the freedom to choose a lifestyle.

The translation of bomzh is vagrant but that word can be met only in the official statements as modern vagrancy is characteristic of Russia.