'Our dreams can be a matter of joke'

Expensive cars

A group of three youngsters bring their sedan to a halt at one of the intersections of the posh Connaught Place market. Soon a street child, following his daily routine, approaches the car and asks for alms.

He spends the next minute or so looking at the youngsters and is momentarily disturbed by the lavish interiors of the car. The traffic lights turn green and the sedan proceeds towards its destination. The boy, meanwhile, walks back to the small group of street children, and shares the details of the car’s rich interior.

“It was an Audi Q3,” declares the urchin to the group who immediately stretch their necks to get a last view of the car. Moments later, the next ‘big car’ arrives and another child approaches it, the cycle, it appears, has no end.

What is worth mentioning though, is the information and knowledge these children, from the city’s underbelly, possess about luxury cars that traverse the city, knowing  very well that none of them might actually, in their lifetime, be able to drive around the very cities where they ask total strangers for money. 

“No harm in knowing the names of these cars,” Manav tells Metrolife when asked why he memorises the names of the cars. “We read the names but mostly we ask passersby. They seem to know a lot about cars even though they don’t own one,” the 15-year-old said, perhaps in a bid to crack a joke. Manav spends his days polishing shoes. His personal favourite car is what he calls ‘Mercidi’.

His street smart acquaintance, Anirudh, who collects scrap items, also seemed to be an ‘appreciator’ but his approach, for obvious reasons, was more pessimistic.

“I imagine myself driving a car. I imagine it every day,” said Anirudh while keeping a watchful eye for cops who spend their days chasing away the kids. He added, “We know how close we are to realise this dream. The ‘rags to riches’ stories look good in films. And contrary to what people think of us, we are more rooted and aware of what reality looks like,” is this youngster’s profound take on life.

As Manav, had remarked earlier, ‘there was no harm in knowing which car is called what’, Anirudh too seems not to have any major issues in doing so. In fact, he said that many like him pick up the names of the brands invariably from the conversation that take place around them. He however, does have strong reservations about the dreaming part of it all.

“Our dreams can easily be a matter of joke for many . They see us begging, collecting scrap items and going about our business, but very rarely comes a time when they want to know who we are, rather than what we do for a living,” he said.

The passersby whom Anirudh referred to are also a divided lot, with a majority of them who, just like these street children, can only remember the names of the cars. Yet associating with the downtrodden can be a dangerous affair.

Rachit, a resident of West Delhi, sits in his air conditioned office not far where street children roam outside expensive showrooms, imagining themselves dressed in colourful clothes. Rachit feels the middle class fantasies of possessing luxury items are still not as ‘sad’ as the dreams of the homeless.

“I am educated. And if I work hard enough, I might be able to purchase whatever I want but a lot of people can’t. And that’s unfortunate---to dream about a thing which you know you will never have,” he said before falling silent.

Of course, for some (or perhaps many), basic necessities, like clean water or a home is a luxury, a fact which these children are well are of. A little dreaming might not mean harm, or so should be believed.