Electric dreams

Akash Bisht follows the lanes and bylanes of Delhi to track those who make the city tick

Hardnews/Delhi

A FEW DAYS ago, as I was trying to plug my cellphone charger into a half-burnt switch, I got a shock that rattled me for a good long minute. After I came to my senses, I saw that my charger was half burnt and there was smoke and sparks coming out of the switch. I ran out to turn the main switch off. Once things were under control, I went out to look for an electrician. After visiting a few shops, I realised most electricians were busy fixing ACs in the nearby posh houses and shops. Most of them told me they could only come the next day, and no matter how much I pleaded with them, they were unmoved. After looking for an hour in the sweltering heat and humidity, I realised I was searching in vain and headed back towards home. Before that, I thought I'd give one last try at a shop that my neighbour had recommended. It took me a while to locate the address and as I entered the shop, I saw two men sleeping peacefully on the couch. I woke the elder occupant of the couch. I told him about my travails.
He woke up his younger partner and asked him to pack his bag and look after the shop while he accompanied me. On the way to my house, I told him about my experience with other electricians. He said people with ACs are the worst of the lot as they expect everything to be fixed for the price of one. He mentioned how an old man in one of the bungalows nearby made him work a whole day and paid him only a paltry sum. He said, "I thought it was meaningless to argue with someone of that age and walked out. I then promised myself that from now on I will only do what I am called for and won't negotiate."
As we reached my house, he had a look at the wiring and the plug points, and gave me a list of equipments that were needed. I paid him the money and he left to buy them. After he returned and got to work, I struck up a conversation with him. His name, he said, is Salim Sheikh. Then he started talking about how he came to Delhi 15 years ago in search of a job after his village in Orissa came under severe drought and he was the only one to survive in his family. He said, "People were dying from water-borne diseases as the only source of water had almost dried and the leftover slush was shared by humans and animals."
His father was the first to die. His mother followed after a prolonged illness. His younger sister was not doing well either and he tried his best to revive her but she also died in few months. "I had lost everything that I had. Someone suggested that a group of people were going to Delhi for jobs and the city offered a better standard of living. I sold my land for a paltry sum that could only buy me my railway ticket and a few days of survival in Delhi," he said, sans any emotion. After coming to Delhi, he started to work in a dhaba near his present residence. He worked for long hours and was paid a paltry sum. He lived in that dhaba, and his food was taken care of, but the dhaba owner was always rude to him and never paid him on time. So he left the job and started working with an electrician, who treated and paid him better. He then rented a room with six other men from Orissa and paid Rs 500 as rent. Eventually, he learnt most of what there was to be learnt as an electrician and started working with a different shop, and most of the times as a freelancer.
Sheikh then married a girl from his neighbourhood and now has a 10-year-old son who studies in one of the elite schools in South Delhi. He said his son often confuses him with his fluent English, and described how he and his wife laugh hysterically whenever their son talks in English because they don't understand a word of it. Intrigued by this, I asked him how he managed to pay such hefty fees for his son's tuitions. He replied. "I work at night in a software firm where I head the electrical appliances and repair department. Since morning till late noon I work in people's houses. I do all this so my son becomes what I had wished I was - an electrical engineer." When I asked him how he manages to do his work without much sleep, he said, "Garibi sab sikha deti hai" (poverty teaches everything). He was almost done with his work when he took out a sticker from his bag and stuck it at the back of my door and said, "I hope you will call me in the future as I would love to help you."
I paid him his fees and gave him a glass of cold water. I also wished him luck in his dreams of turning his son into an electrical engineer. He smiled and said he would do his best.

This is the fifth of the 12 part series