India, Dec. 21 -- There is a quiet tragedy in walking past someone who has been forgotten - a man talking to voices no one can hear or a woman clutching a bag that holds her entire world. They can be seen on sidewalks, underbridges or near garbage dumps.

Behind every face is a story that began somewhere safe - at a kitchen table, in a childhood bedroom, inside a family that once knew their laugh.

Witness to a sight 37 years ago where an unkept, thin man was drinking water from a roadside gutter, psychiatrist and Magsaysay awardee (2018) Dr Bharat Vatwani and his wife Smitha (also a psychiatrist) chose to reach out to that man on the street and listen to his story. "It was not an easy interaction but we took the time to talk to him, a me...