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Home 82
Delhi, Delhi
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For more than 30 years, N drove an auto (a motorised three seat vehicle used as a taxi in India.) “Pehle dusre ki gaadi pe haath saaf kiya phir apni kharidi,” (I learned my trade by first driving someone else’s auto and then bought my own.)

After retiring from driving autos, N began running a small shop from a room of his house overlooking the street where he sold cigarettes and sweets. N lived with his wife and five sons, and his wife was very ill most of the time. “Sarkari mein time bahut lagta hai,” (Government hospitals take a lot of time) he said, and explained that his wife was getting private medical treatment.

N bought land here twenty years ago after some fields were cleared to make space for new settlements and they moved in while their house was still being built. Outside, fellow residents erected bamboo poles from which they hung lights to light their streets. They lived in an ‘unauthorised’ colony and the government did not provide any essential services to its residents. A large truck with drinking water came on Mondays, and they had had water purifying units installed to be able to use tap water. N’s home was not connected to the water supply and he had to collect water everyday from someone else’s house. The idea of running his own shop came from his father, who had run a shop when he was alive. Every week, one of his sons brought him supplies for the shop.