Mission Delhi – Ram Bahadur, Jangpura
One of the one percent in 13 million.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Bhagwan Ram is embedded in the very fabric of this food hawker’s life. Let’s start with his name—Ram Bahadur, meaning Ram the brave. He sells Ram Laddu, those yummy deep-fried moong dal pakodis garnished with grated radish and sour-green chutney.
And Ram Bahadur’s son’s name is Ram Khiladi, meaning Ram the player.
And when Ram Bahadur stops to greet familiar faces on the streets, he instinctively breaks into that warm friendly greeting of “Ram-Ram”. Just the way others might say namaste or hello.
“I also say Ram-Ram when I have to say bye-bye,” Ram Bahadur clarifies.
As a hawker, he walks about the city alleys the whole day long with his food basket. This evening he has stopped by a Jangpura by-lane in central Delhi; the straw basket is perched on a kind of padded cap placed on his head. He calls it topi. “It’s to balance the basket and also to keep the head safe from injuries,” he says.
Ram Bahadur now places the basket carefully on the bamboo stand he had under his arm, and shows the topi, explaining that he himself sewed it with pieces of discarded clothes. It’s wrapped in plastic to keep it safe from dust.
This kind of cap is used by many hawkers like him, he says.
“Nobody showed me how to make it.” Just as nobody told him to greet with Ram-Ram? He laughs.
In his early 40s, Ram Bahadur arrived in the capital from his village in Badaun, UP, as a small boy aged ten. “A relative was already selling Ram Laddus here.” Pausing for a while, as if trying to recall a distant memory, Ram Bahadur confesses “that perhaps he must have taught me how to make such a topi.”
Mr Bahdur’s son in the village is of the age at which he himself left home for Delhi. “I hope Ram Khiladi never have to learn to make this kind of mazdoor ki topi (labourer’s cap).”
The kid is studying in the village school, he informs, hoping “one day he becomes a bada admi (big man) with Ramji’s kripa (blessing).”
[This is the 279th portrait of Mission Delhi project]
A Ram in the crowd
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That cloth ring to carry the load is called इंडी INDI in the Haryanvi language. It is usually given to the newly wed lady as part of her dowry by her parents. It comes in various styles, ranging from simple cloth rings for every day usage to elaborate colorful ones for the ceremonial occasions such as to carry head loads, e.g. earthen MATKA or metallic TOKNI, to carry water from the well as part of wedding or newborn rituals.
This INDI is also mentioned in the currently viral SAPNA CHAUDHARY’s song, GAZBAL PAANI NE CHAALI, INDI SONE KI GHADWALO, the bombshell babes goes to fetch the water from the well, she has made the head ring from the gold.
Since you live in a traditional Jat village of Delhi, ask your landlord’s wife to show you some ornate INDIs. Enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsSQLbm9jns
Check this ornate INDI out.
http://socialfabric.textilemuseum.ca/Aromatic-Heavy/Series-1/Head-ring-(indhoni).aspx