Mukul from Gopalganj, Bihar.

This is Mukul from Gopalganj, Bihar. He works, like many of his friends, as a contract labourer. He currently installs Air Conditioners for the Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram, Chennai. Before this he worked in the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi. He moves wherever his contractor takes him. His wage is Rs. 200 per day (around $4), a part of which again goes to the contractor as rent for the place where he stays. He says he takes some money for his food and sends the rest to his family in Bihar. He has two elder brothers and a younger sister. Obviously, he doesn't have the privilege of choosing his profession. Before coming into this vocation, he worked in his brother's barber shop in Assam. After three years there, he and his brother had to confront the fact that the shop wasn't doing well. So his brother, being the elder one, goes into unskilled labour work and Mukul follows suit. He works hard for long hours without any security for his job or life (four of his colleagues died during the construction of this library by falling from the top floors, according to one of the watchmen here. So the authorities organised a pooja, sacrificed a goat and fed the others meat and other delicacies, then resumed construction from the next day).

Right. So that's his square as of now. I ask him if he has an idea on what he wants to do in the long run. Studying is not an option, he says, even if he starts right away, it'd be too little too late and also too damn demanding (financially and psychologically). When I ask him more about it, being a cheerful lad and having that rare air of naivety around him, he smiles, shrugs and makes some vague hand gestures. And I smile with him too. We part ways when we reach the entrance of the library. I go into the glass walls, he remains outside and starts arranging sacks of sand.