Delhiwale: His extraordinary childhood

A 12-year-old boy named Vikas sells roasted bhuttas under a peepal tree. He goes to school in the morning and makes a living in the afternoon. He doesn’t seem to think there is nothing extraordinary about it.

Late one afternoon on south Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg, we come across a street food seller under a peepal tree. He is roasting bhuttas on a bed of red-hot coal.

Vikas, a class 5 student sells bhutta on Nelson Mandela Marg. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

“What’s your age, sir?” we ask.

“Barah (12).”

“Where do you live?”

“Near the traffic light.”

“Where’s your mother?”

“She washes dishes in the apartments.”

“Papa?”

“Carpenter.”

“Why don’t you go to school?”

“I’m a class 5 student.”

“What do you want to be in life?”

“Your hands are black with coaldust.”

He stretches out his palms and looks surprised.

His left arm is tattooed with the word ‘Om’—in Hindi.

He lifts his other arm. It is tattooed with the word ‘Vikash’ — in English.

“My name. I had my arms tattooed for Rs 30.”

“How much have you earned so far?”

He hesitates.

He is sitting on a plastic bag. The money, it seems, is kept under it.

A customer comes and the class 5 student starts warming a previously roasted bhutta.

Meanwhile, traffic continues to move smoothly on Nelson Mandela Marg.