One of the one percent in 13 million.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Uniformed in blue, he is stationed at the posh neighbourhood’s entrance, here in central Delhi, attending to his day shift as a gateway guard.

Saurabh is 23. He arrived in Delhi five days ago from his home district of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. It is his first time in the city, he says. He informs he did his postgraduate master’s degree in commerce from Rewa’s Awadhesh Pratap Singh University.

Saurabh was awarded the degree a year ago, but he did not immediately try to search for a suitable employment. Instead, he stayed at home, pressing pause on his private plans to focus on performing a grandson’s duties. “My babba had been ill for some time. He was bedridden, he could barely move. I was looking after his needs, caring for him.”

The grandfather died three months ago, freeing Saurabh to start thinking about his future. While all seemed uncertain, he was certain about one thing, he says, and that was that he did not wish to continue to live in his district. “I wanted to go to a big city. I wanted to be in a new world, and build my life there. So I came to Delhi.”

Saurabh also leaned towards Delhi because some of his relatives were already working in the capital, including a friend from Rewa—a guard himself—who in fact arranged for him to get his current job as a guard. Saurabh’s responsibilities include manning the colony’s entry barrier, and noting down the number plate of each vehicle driving into the neighbourhood. It is likely to be a temporary arrangement but this early job might help him find a footing in the new place, he believes. (The aforementioned friend is extremely supportive—one recent afternoon the friend stopped a passerby and asked if he could help Saurabh land an “office job.”)

Turning to a small temple built under a roadside tree, Saurabh says he is hopeful about his prospects. “I’m a fresher. Experience will take me to right kinds of jobs… it will not be easy.”

He now agrees to pose for a photo but requests that his face remains hidden from view.

[This is the 589th portrait of Mission Delhi project]