20 cars gutted in fire at multi-level parking in Delhi, one held
As many as 20 cars were gutted after a fire broke out in a Municipal Corporation’s multi-level parking in Delhi’s…
Subhash Nagar in West Delhi is not like Jama Masjid though it too has an old-world charm about it, despite being a 1950s refugee colony. The dahi-wallah goes about with a matka (earthenware pot) on his head here also every afternoon for the benefit of those who missed going to the neighbourhood dairy, the gypsies come to all sell their wares and trade glances with roadside romeos while the khatbuna cycles around the galis to mend string cots.
The juice-wallah and surai-seller are there too. So also the leechman, who draws out bad blood from the swollen veins of old fogies. Among these odd characters Sanjay used to be a little boy, fair, chubby and talkative, who sold surais in the marketplace, helped by his comely mother. The earthen goblets came on a cart and were then neatly arranged on the pavement by the two.
In the morning Sanjay used to go to school and after that collect enough coins from the friendly grocer in exchange for Rs.20 notes to meet his customers' demand for small change. Slowly Sanjay became darker, slimmer and taller, but remained a constant feature every summer, even after his widowed mother fell in love with a Bindapur potter, remarried and went away. He heralded the season in early March and winded it up after selling Diwali toys and diyas months later. Then Sanjay went missing.
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One vainly looked for him every day and suddenly one evening he was there, wearing jeans, instead of knickers. He had got married in his village, left school ~ "where there was nothing much left to learn", he said, and brought his dainty bride with him to Delhi.
The gossip is that Sanjay escorts 15-year-old Basanti to school so that she could learn to read and write and in the evenings, after operating the potter's wheel, often takes her to see a TV film at a friend's house. One misses Sanjay and hopes he'll return to the market with his endearing, infectious smile. Maybe after the birth of a child to keep company with his mother's newly-born baby.
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