It is nearing midnight. The cold polluted Delhi air is growing chillier, here in the Walled City’s Chawri Bazar. The last of the boiled egg stalls lining the street-sides are preparing to wind down their operation. Scores of labourers, who work and live in the area, are lying along the length of the darkened market corridors, head to feet, head to feet—each body wrapped tight in blankets. On one spot along a pave, two white splendidly attired mares are standing face to face. Underneath the mares, three young men are sitting cross-legged on the pave, silently gazing at the market street.
Shahnawaz, Saddam and Kamil are brothers. They introduce themselves as “ghori wale”, saying that they own the two mares standing behind them. Every year during the winter months, when a great number of weddings take place in the city, the brothers stay busy every night; their mares being booked by the “party” to carry the groom during the wedding procession.
For the moment, the brothers are waiting for tonight’s assignment to begin. They have been given to understand that the “dulha” will arrive at the spot with his “baraat” after midnight. Meanwhile, the brothers helped themselves to a meal of aloo parathas at a street stall. They will however be given a more filling dinner at the wedding buffet, one of them says. They expect the buffet to include mutton korma and chicken biryani.
The boys live with their parents in north-east Delhi’s Seelampur, on the other side of the river Yamuna. This evening, they came all the way to Chawri Bazar riding on the mares. Took them about two hours. One brother says: “We came very slowly, kadam kadam, stopping frequently so that our ghoriyan didn’t get tired.”
Another brother turns to the mares, saying: “Her name is Bachhi, her name is Bachewali.”
The boys’ father operates a biryani cart in Seelampur. The mother administers the household. In the summer, when weddings are not frequent, the brothers find other works, such as operating a snack cart, or running a battery rickshaw.
“We could not attend school due to conditions at home,” one of them says, responding to a query.
The boys assume that they would return home by early in the morning. Then they will feed the tired mares with “channa, gur, bhoosa,” plus bucketful of water, and only then will they themselves retire to sleep.