MAHENDER GUPTA & AJAY KUMAR
He craftily sprinkled sev over ‘bhel puri’ while rattling off the menu to another customer. Mahender Gupta (26), who hails from a village in Allahabad, has been visiting Chennai for a couple of months at a stretch for four years now. While he still hasn’t picked up the language, he has now understood how to bargain with auto drivers. “I came to Chennai because I heard from a friend that business prospects are good here,” Gupta said. “The thing about a big city is that everyone has money to spend, whether it is a school child or an old person. It is not like that in my village. People don’t have enough money to go about spending like this because there is only one earning member and at least six mouths to feed.”
Even in his house, Gupta is going to be the sole breadwinner as his father, who works in railways, is nearing retirement. Gupta works all seven days while he is in Chennai as he has to pay `500 as rent for his stall daily. When asked about what he does in his free time, he said he does not have ‘timepass.’
“I wake up everyday by 5 am to start making the puris for the pani puri,” he explained. “We generally end up making between one kilo to 2.5 kg depending on whether it is a weekday or weekend. Making a kilo of puris takes about three hours because we start from scratch. Then, we come in the afternoon and stay at the stall till 10.30pm. So, where is the time to do anything else?” Now, things have got a little easier for Gupta as he brought back 18-year-old Ajay Kumar from his village. So, while Kumar focusses only on making ‘pani puri’ for customers, Gupta entices them with other chaat items ranging from ‘dahi papdi’ to ‘bhel puri’.
ZAN KHADKA & PRAMOD RAI
The kitchen is filled with the aroma of a delicious sauce that simmers in a large wok. At the other end, a confident hand juliennes vegetables, all the while speaking in Hindi and Nepali. This is the kitchen that serves hungry guests craving Chinese food in a cosy restaurant, Great Wall, which is tucked away in a by lane at Besant Nagar.
Suzan Khadka and Pramod Rai are responsible for cooking up a storm everyday. The two hail from Nepal, but have been in Chennai for years now. They visit their families once a year and while they do miss home, they have come to like living in the city. “The people here are very decent,” said Khadka. “Language was a major obstacle, but we are used to it now. Living away from family is always hard, but all of us here stay together and look out for each other.”
All those working in the restaurant are from Nepal, barring one, who is from Darjeeling. The head chef-cum-owner of the eatery, Adrian Lambert, has been training such people for over 10 years. His current manager, Deepak Sharma, has been with him for five years. “I started off as a waiter,” he said. “Today, I am a manager and it is wonderful. I am married and my wife lives in Nepal. While I do miss her, I enjoy living in Chennai because the people here are very nice.”
For those who work in the kitchen, summer is often the worst but these youngsters think otherwise. “Our kitchen is very well ventilated and has very good equipment. So we are quite lucky that the kitchen does not become unbearable to cook in,” said Rai. “The weather in Chennai is one of the very few bad things about the city, especially during the peak summer time. Otherwise, it is a very good place to work.”
“Migrant workers, like all workers, are entitled to fair treatment and it is also key to preserving the social fabric of our societies and to sustainable development,” International Labour Organisation (ILO) director-general, Guy Ryders said. As the UN World Day of Social Justice was celebrated last week, Dia Rekhi interacted with several people who had shifted from other States and countries to work in Chennai, for the promise of a better life. It was an attempt to understand the difficulties and challenges they faced in an unfamiliar environment...
SUNIL KUMAR & SUNIL KUMAR
They share the same name and belong to the same city in Uttar Pradesh — Gorakhpur. However, they met for the first time in Chennai at a construction site in the suburbs. While 32-year-old Sunil Kumar hails from Urva, 22-year old Sunil Kumar lives in Panera. One of them is married with two children while the other was married six months ago and has spent only two months with his wife.
“Staying away from my family for months is the hardest part,” said Kumar who has a son and daughter. “I am missing out on seeing my children grow up. But what can I do? Someone has to earn. I am counting the days left to get back. It is a sacrifice one makes for money and if it did not hurt, it would not be a sacrifice.” He has been coming to Chennai for work for the last 12 years and manages to communicate with shopkeepers and auto drivers through sign language and gestures. “Work gets very hectic and sometimes I end up working for nearly 12 hours at a stretch,” he said. “I don’t generally get too much time to myself and when I do, I call and speak to my family. Once in a while, we walk to the beach.”
However, his younger namesake is a big film buff. “Four of us went together to Mayajaal to watch Padmaavat,” he said grinning. “This is my first experience of working and living in Chennai, but those around me said the ticket prices have gone up. So we are not going for any more films. But in March, I will definitely go and watch Raid because it has Ajay Devgn and he is a very good.”But they are dreading the summer temperatures. “It is much hotter than Delhi,” said 22-year-old Kumar. “But what can we do? We need the money so we are willing to endure anything because for us having work is the biggest gift.”
NEHA LAMA & PUSHPA SUBBA
Chang’s is a beauty parlour reminiscent of a different time. One that doesn’t let swanky interiors and formal behaviour overrule what is a place for women to indulge not just in beauty treatment but also conversation as they wax their legs or thread their eyebrows.
Handling women who are looking to beautify themselves is a tricky business, but 30-year-old Neha Lama manages to do it with ease, flashing her warm smile and exuding a friendly demeanour. Lama is from Siliguri and has been working in Chennai for over 15 years. Her husband works at a Chinese restaurant.
“We go home once every year,” she said. “As no one was able to take care of my daughter here, considering my husband and I are working throughout the day, I had to send her back to Siliguri. Staying away from my daughter is very hard, but the opportunities to earn are much better here than there. I am so excited though because she is coming to Chennai today.”
Her colleague, 33-year-old Pushpa Subba too hails from Darjeeling.
Coming from lush, cool mountains to Chennai was a huge change, but Subba too has gotten used to Chennai after having worked here for about nine years. “I came to Chennai when one of my friends who worked at Chang’s told me it was a good opportunity for me to work,” she said. “I live on my own here as my husband stays in Darjeeling. He works as a farmer there. Staying away from family is a challenge, but the women I work with are extremely supportive. We spend all our time together and go out shopping and to Marina beach on our day off.”The women at Chang’s said they never felt unsafe in Chennai as the people were very “cultured and nice.”