What is your religion and your caste?
I am Hindu by religion and Brahmin by caste.
Are you married, do you have children?
Yes, I am married and I have one daughter.
How long have you been in Delhi?
I have been in Delhi for nine years.
Why did you come here?
I came here for a job.
What kind of job?
I am working in a public sector company as an assistant manager. I am a chartered accountant by profession and I do the accounting, taxation, audit, these kinds of jobs in my company.
When you came to Delhi did you have any friends or family here?
I have distant relatives here in Delhi and before permanently settling here in Delhi I had come here a number of times before.
What kind of work do you do?
My profile right now is a goods and services tax. I pay for the tax and I file all the returns and I do all the calculations, documentation, and correspondences and all.
How did you decide to become an accountant in the first place?
I have my elder sister doing the CA profession. You have CMA, CFA I think in America, similar where we have CA in India. So my elder sister was pursuing this profession. So I got to know this profession from her.
How much is the salary and is the salary enough to cover all your needs?
My salary is 65,000 gross, Indian rupee. Apart from that, I am getting a housing accommodation from my company. And a telephone connection and you can have internet anywhere, anyplace. So these are perks that my company provides us.
Are you able to send remittances or money to your family?
It has never happened that my family needs some remittances. So, when it comes we will definitely be able to do that.
What is your ideal job? If you could have any job, what would it be?
Sometimes I am also asking myself ‘What is an ideal job for me?’ Because sometimes I don't feel, going to office, I don't feel that you know, I don't want to go to office. Many times I feel I don't want to go to office. No no, I don't want to do this job. But then I ask, ‘What kind of job would you love to do?’ And I have no answer. I am just doing [this] for the sake of employment.
What do you think of the lifestyle in Delhi?
The lifestyle in Delhi is very, very fast. The things, you know, tall buildings, the facilities, the Delhi metro you have seen. Very good transportation system. The traffic, we don't have traffic signals and traffic police in our city. The traffic system, the transportation system, the governance is very fast here, you won't get that fast governance in smaller cities. And the fashion sense of Delhi people is different. You feel a big difference in the fashion sense of people. The thought process is very different. They are very forward in terms of, many, many things. In terms of profession also they are very forward. They know of many kinds of professions, we know only two or three kinds of professions – doctors, engineers, CAs and medical and all, but in Delhi they are engaged in different types of jobs you have never heard [of] in smaller places. That people also tell me, this kind of job is there, you can do this, I was not knowing earlier.
Have you ever experienced any type of discrimination in Delhi?
No, no, no, no discrimination that I have ever felt. This place is, in my opinion, this place is safe. The reason may be that I don't go outside after 7 or 8 without a companion. This may be the reason. But still, I never face any “eve-teasing” in Delhi like I faced in my city many times. People coming, passing by and just touching you in a very wrong way. Many times I have faced these situations in my town but not in Delhi.
Will you one day go back to your hometown?
No! Very obviously, no. Nowhere apart from Delhi. I love Delhi.
It's almost fifty people I've interviewed, you are the first to say that.
No. I love Delhi and the place I am living I just love that place. The facilities are so good, you will never see any light cuts [power outages], any water shortage here. So life is quite smooth.
In your opinion, why do so many people come to Delhi?
For jobs, obviously. I don't think there is any other reason for coming to Delhi.
What about lifestyle?
Yeah, you will not see this and other kinds of things in smaller towns. In the last ten years [since] I moved from my hometown, the IT sector has grown many times, so my town is also going the similar, faster way. But still there is a gap in the lifestyle in Delhi and the town.