Discover Delhi: In memory of the nameless man who died after a car ran over him

The homeless man killed in north Delhi after a DPS student drove a car over him is still unidentified. This photo essay shows the ordeals of those without a shelter in Delhi.

It is almost midnight. He is lying sprawled on the road divider. He seems to be sleeping. His eyes are closed. The headlights of a speeding car fall on his figure, illuminating him momentarily. The car goes away; the man is again plunged into the city’s incomplete darkness.

A homeless man preparing to sleep on the divider at Ranjit Singh flyover near Barakhamba Road in central Delhi. (Mayank Austen Soofi)

This is a scene on south Delhi’s Aurobindo Marg. The sight of this man on this spot in the city is unique because, after all, each of us has an individual identity. It is a part of basic courtesy to emphasize the exclusiveness of this anonymous person.

Having said that, we ought to confess that most of the times the homeless people sleeping on the pavements look the same from a car window. They are noticed only when some car driver loses control and a sleeping body come under the tyres. Early morning on Thursday, four homeless men sleeping on a pavement in north Delhi’s Yamuna Bazaar came under a car being driven by a school student.

The ever onward nature of the news cycle will ensure that the ‘nameless’ man will soon be buried under other headlines and tweets. The city will forget the sleeping bodies of its pavements until the next out-of-control car.

We, however, often walk the streets of Delhi at night (and day), actively trying to see our city’s invisible people sleeping on the pavements. This photo essay is in memory of the nameless man who was killed by a speeding car near Kashmere Gate.

Jama Masjid

Connaught Place

Nizamuddin

Turkman Gate

Asaf Ali Road

Kasturba Gandhi Marg

Jawaharlal Nehru Marg

Bhishm Pitamah Marg

Asaf Ali Marg

Chawri Bazaar

Lodhi Road

Netaji Subhash Marg

(These photographs were taken between September 2016 and April 2017. Delhi government estimates there are nearly 20,000 homeless people in Delhi. Many of them prefer to sleep on the pavements as the free night shelters could be too stuffy.)