So after having left Dilli (Delhi) for more than three years now, it’s finally setting in that I’ve left the city for good and that I may never go back and live there again (which I thought deep down that I would go back someday), which has left me with all these nostalgic feelings about the place.
Dilli has fascinated me with its cosmopolitan nature where you see and meet all types of people from every walk of life. A few of them have left a lasting impression on me.
The group of people who gained my attention most of all is the Rickshawallas. Most of these rickshawallas are basically from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who came to Dilli to earn a living.
While some are school drop-outs and still in their teenage years, some looked very old fit to be living a quiet retired life.
Almost all my rickshaw rides were interacting with these rickshawallas and listening to their stories of how much they earn each day, how much is given to the owners, how much sent home to their families and finally how very little left for them after all the hard work!
As night approaches, I’ve also noticed how most of them get stoned and sleep away on their rickshaws with a scourge of mosquitoes feasting on their blood!
They don’t care the scorching July sun or the freezing January fog. All that matters to them is that they get a passenger to sit on their rickshaws.
While the older ones mostly talk about their miseries, the younger lot are full of life. They talk about their families back home and how they are helping in their younger brother’s or sister’s study to let them become somebody someday despite the fact that they’ve sacrificed theirs.
Interacting with them always made me feel fortunate about the things I’m blessed with and how selfish and greedy we tend to become inspite of all the fortunes. My rickshaw rides which I always sit and complain as either too hot or too cold (depending on the weather condition) is a luxury for them as they don’t get to sit comfortably like me, and if I reach my destination, it’s because they’ve pedalled all the way in the heat or the cold, is the simple fact that shows how arrogant and blind we can become when we are fortunate to live the life we’re living, yet not realising that what’s basic for us is a luxury to them.
For the privileged you can always have a home away from home whereas for the deprived you are always an outsider.
Inquisitive Wanderess 