One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Coronavirus isn’t going away any time soon. One will have to live with the pandemic. These are truths universally acknowledged. Devendra Bisht, 39, has appropriately adapted his present days to the new normal without making much fuss. “Life has to go on, work must carry on,” he stoically says this afternoon, talking on WhatsApp from his work. He is the branch head, sales, at Bahrisons Booksellers bookstore in Gurgaon’s Galleria Market. Unlike most of us, Mr Bisht has been attending to his day-job duty long before the last batch of the lockdown ended in the Delhi region. “I joined work as soon as the bookshops were permitted to restart their

One of the one percent in 13 million. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He appears every morning on this central Delhi street. And sits on the pavement, watching the passersby go by. “I’m a beggar, why to hide,” he mumbles jovially but without showing any smile. He is wearing a black kurta atop a black lungir—the only bright shades about him are coming from his scraggly white beard and orange chappals. He is perched on a brown plastic mat, spread out in front of an artificial jewellery shop whose shutters are yet to open. And what can be his name? The man at last turns his head towards his interlocutor, but his gaze is curiously directed, as if it were more interested in examining