Delhiwale: Juggling cultures and identities

Dhanam talks about her ‘Hindi and Tamil’ life

The most endearing aspect about the picturesque foot over bridges that fan out from Pragati Maidan Metro station are not them alone, but a cheerful snacks vendor who runs a stall underneath the structure on the broad pavement beside the traffic light, below a spindly Ashoka tree.

Dressed in a purple sari, the vendor says she has two names.(HT Photo)

Dressed in a purple sari, the vendor says she has two names. “In Delhi, my name is Daman; in Chennai, it is Dhanam,” she discloses. These names correspond to her bonds with two cities separated by miles, cultures, and languages.

Speaking in fluent Hindi, Dhanam says she is from the Tamil Nadu capital, and is either 50 or 60 years old. “Occasionally, a rare Tamilian passing by stops to ask if I too was a Tamilian.”

The two then get sentimental, she says, and start chattering in Tamil. Dhanam considers both Tamil and Hindi as her languages, “though we speak Tamil at home.”

Her husband Mani, a labourer, is the only one in the family who was born in Tamil Nadu. Her four children, and her, are Delhi-born. Waving towards a far-off rail bridge, she says her house is somewhere over there.

Momentarily silenced by the rumble of a metro train, Dhanam recalls her parents who arrived from Chennai and made a home in Delhi. “They are gone but we haven’t lost contact with Chennai… We go there every year during Shivaratri to meet our relatives.”

Two middle-aged ladies in salwar suits pass by, chatting in Punjabi. Dhanam doesn’t understand this language, she says, playfully touching her ears in mock-apology.

The intersection of Tamil and Hindi weaves the texture of her daily life. “My daughter Priya brings me lunch every afternoon… Today, she got Hindi khana.” Which means the food of Delhi, she explains — this day it was aloo baingan with rotis. Once a week the family rustles out “Tamil khana”, which tends to be sambhar and rice, she says, her laughter roaring through the area.

Dhanam and her stall seem so rooted to the area’s infrastructural landscape that she appears to have been here for decades. But these bridges are recent, and so is Dhanam’s stall. “I washed dishes in bungalows, but discontinued due to knee pain.”

Even so, her working life remains hectic. Dhanam arrives every morning at 6 and leaves nearly 11 hours later.

Relief comes at home when she watches night shows on (Chennai-based) Jaya TV. This sets her talking of her favourite Tamil movie icons, starting with MGR. “He died many years ago… I also like Sridevi — humari heroine from Chennai… She too has passed away.”