New Delhi: While the fortunate spent New Year's Eve dancing at midnight parties, feasting on delicacies or watching TV from inside warm quilts, for over 1,50,000 homeless in the national capital it was just another day of a numbing battle for survival.
"New Year holds no meaning for me. It's just another day of begging and sleeping on the pavement. Celebration and festivals are for rich people... We just look at them and curse our own fate," said Rahat Ali, who sleeps on the pavement near the Delhi Zoo with just a thin blanket and tattered clothes to protect him from the bitter chill and thick fog.
"This year New Year and the Eid are on the same day but I am not happy about it. When you have no home or income... how can you enjoy? Sab Allah jane (God knows)," the 62-year-old Ali, who even found it difficult to stand straight, said.
Ali was just one of the thousands of homeless in Delhi who feel that New Year or any other special day for that matter make a mockery of their own daily struggle for sheer survival.
For Raghu, Rakesh and Islam Ali, who have been sleeping under a flyover in Sarai Kale Khan for several months, a midnight party often means just sharing a bundle of bidi.
"We collect plastic from garbage dumps in the nearby areas and return in the evening to sleep under the flyover. New Year, Diwali or Eid makes no difference to our life. When the three of us together can manage to earn no more than Rs 40 a day, how can we take a room on rent?" asked Raghu while lighting a beedi.
All of them are from Bihar and have been in Delhi for the last five years.
"We are close friends and help each other in whatever way possible. Earlier, we slept near the Red Fort in old Delhi but the police tortured us too much. They used to pick us from the pavement accusing us of being thieves. Life just goes on somehow," said 17-year-old Islam philosophically.
Added Rakesh: "For us New Year means a bundle of beedi, and a dog is our fourth mate."
However, all pavement dwellers are not that despairing.
"I am not hopeless. My child is now four years old and he will go to school this year," said Alka, 37, holding her baby boy close to her chest.
"It's too cold for the last few days and my son is suffering from fever. Though I earn my livelihood by begging, I believe I will get some permanent work," she said, adding that in the last 12 days she has earned over Rs 300 by cleaning plates in several road side eateries.
"Once my son gets admitted to a school, I can think of going out for more work," said Alka, who sleeps in front of glittering shops in Lajpat Nagar, a major shopping destination for the middle class.
And as the temperature dips, these homeless just feel every dipping degree in their bones as they scrounge for ways to stay warm in a city that offers little refuge.
It's a harsh life that has just got worse for children like 10-year-old Saguna, who shivered near a traffic post holding balloons in her hand while hoping to attract a child inside a heated car on a darkening evening in south Delhi.
"Every day I sell balloons till 10 pm (2200 hrs IST) and sleep under an awning near the pavement. I sold 20 balloons today," said Saguna, dressed in tattered clothing and with only one worn blanket as cover.
"Though I want to wear warm clothes, my mother does not allow me to stay inside the tent. She wants me to stay out and sell balloons to help my mother in earning a livelihood for our family," she said.
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