Of which religion and caste are you?
I am of the Muslim religion.
Are you married? Do you have children?
I am not married.
Where are you from and for how long have you been living in Delhi?
Basically, I am from Bihar. I have been living in Delhi for seven years.
With whom do you live?
I live with my brother.
Why did you come to Delhi?
I came to Delhi for employment, to do business.
Before you came to Delhi did you have any friends or family members living here?
My elder brother lived here.
Your elder brother was here. What work do you do?
I am in business.
What type of business?
Garment business. Seven years ago, when I came, it was a small shop, I started with that. As of today, I have three show rooms.
For how many years have you been doing this business?
Seven years.
The money you get from this work, is it enough according to you?
Yes, it is enough.
Are you able to send some money to your family in Hazipur?
Yes, I do send. Every month.
Have you done this kind of work before?
No this was my first time, first attempt.
What did you do before this work?
Before this work I used to study.
You used to study. Can you tell something more about your work?
I started this work with a new model. As it was earlier, those who sold fabric, only sold fabric and the tailors only stitched it. I merged the two into one. I have the fabric and do the tailoring. I kept ready-made also, all the things, so that no one had to face any difficulties. Otherwise, one has to get the cloth here and then go for stitching elsewhere. The tailor doesn’t make guarantees about the cloth not being spoiled. Even the shopkeeper does not make any guarantees that his cloth won’t be bad. I guarantee both. If there is something wrong with the clothes, I take all the responsibility. If there is something wrong with the stitching, that is my responsibility. Due to this, the customers developed a trust in my shop. Everything is ready and available there. They know, if there is any problem, this shopkeeper is taking the responsibility. I worked on this model, and it turned out to be very good.
When you are working, what do you think at that time? What goes on into your mind?
While working, it comes to my mind that I should take the work still further.
What would be a good job that you would like to do?
In my thinking, in the future, I have to serve the people. At the most, I will be in this work for [another] 2-3 years. After that, I will leave it and go back to my village. I will take 4-5 bighas of land and I will get it wire-fenced. I will raise goats and keep poor people there with me. This is the kind of work I want to do.
How do you like Delhi life?
I feel Delhi life is the kind that one has to just bear somehow. One has to just bear it and stay. I do not find it more than that. I like the village much better.
You don’t enjoy it?
That is why I will go away from here after two years. I don’t have to live here.