On a cold night’s assignment

On the winter work of three “ghori wale”

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It is nearing midnight. The cold polluted Delhi air is growing chillier, here in the Walled City’s Chawri Bazar.

The last of the boiled egg stalls lining the street-sides are preparing to wind down their operation. Scores of labourers, who work and live in the area, are lying along the length of the darkened market corridors, head to feet, head to feet—each body wrapped tight in blankets. On one spot along a pave, two white splendidly attired mares are standing face to face. Underneath the mares, three young men are sitting cross-legged on the pave, silently gazing at the market street.