One of the ways of making a living

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

The world has its share of unloved and unwanted rats. This becomes evident in Gurugram’s bustling Sadar Bazar. It offers an unusually frequent sightings of street hawkers selling rat poison. Here are brief sketches of a few of them encountered across the seasons.

Seeshpal arrived in the city more than two decades ago from a Rajasthan village. He spent the early weeks surveying the markets, observing the many street businesses. One afternoon in Sadar Bazar, he sighted a hawker walking along a packed lane with a placard hanging from his neck. The placard depicted a rat. The man was selling rat-killing pills and powders. Today, Seesh Pal, along with another hawker (Ramesh), is among Sadar Bazar’s long-time rat poison sellers. The banner that he holds shows not only a rat, but also a cockroach, a chipkali, a lice and a bedbug. He has many kinds of “powder and goliyan,” he explains, each focusing on a particular pest.

The quiet Rajkumar conducts his business in Sadar Bazar and also in the vicinity’s other city sectors. His banner displays images of insects and rodents with a tagline guaranteeing swift extermination of rats, cockroaches, termites and lizards. The largest image is of two rats romantically gazing into each other’s eyes, see photo, snapped during an interaction a couple of years back.

Rajesh’s little cart is crammed with very many sachets. The banner displays a sprawling bungalow surrounded by rats, cockroaches, lizards, bed bugs and flies. Rajesh wades through the market lanes so slowly that at any given moment his cart almost appears to be stationary. His vending voice is as laid-back.

To be sure, rat poison hawkers are not limited to Gurugram’s Sadar Bazar. They are also sighted in Delhi, including in the cramped lanes around the Walled City’s Turkman Gate, but there they are never seen in such strength as in the market in Gurugram.

At some points during their day’s repeat circumambulations, the aforementioned mobile hawkers inevitably pass by Bharat Tin Traders, a small establishment near Sadar Bazar’s pickle lane, close to Yasin Plaza shopping complex. The shop is a formidable rival. It specialises in something that is a alternative to rat poison–the mousetrap.

PS: Vendor Fakeeru who administers her stall under the Dilli Gate monument in Najafgarh has a wide selection of rat poison, making the display sight a must-see.