in the first story the writer is asking ragbicker boy that why does he do that work the boy's name is saheb he has left his home which was in dhaka long ago because storms swept away their fields and homes why do you do this i have nothing else to do go to school i realized how hollow my advice would sound to this poor ugg picker there's no school in my neighborhood when they build one i will go if i start a school will you come yes after a few days i saw him running up to me is your score ready it takes longer to build a school i was embarrassed at having a promise that was not meant after months of knowing him i asked his name he announces sahabi alaim he does not know its meaning if he knew its meaning that as lord of the universe he could not believe it unaware of what his name means he roams the streets with his friends an army of barefoot boys who appear like morning birds who disappear at noon i ask one why aren't you wearing your chat pals my mother did not bring them down from the shelf even if she did bring down the shoes he will throw them off the second boy meant that the barefoot boy didn't want to wear chapped pals the second boy was wearing on matching shoes when the writer asked why he was wearing unmatching shoes he just moved his feet as if trying to hide them there was also a third boy he wanted shoes as he had never owned a pair in his life traveling across the country i've seen children walking barefoot one explanation is it is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot i wonder if this is the only excuse to explain away an ever-changing state of poverty i remember a story a man from udipi once told to me as a young boy he would go to school past an old temple where his father was a priest on the way to school he would stop at the temple and pray for a pair of shoes thirty years later i visited the temple which was now drowned in an air of loneliness i saw in the backyard where the new priest lived there were red and white chairs a young boy dressed in a grey uniform wearing socks and shoes arrived and threw his bag on a folding bed looking at the boy i remembered the prayer the other boy had made to the goddess when he had finally got a pair of shoes he prayed let me never lose them the goddess had granted his prayer young boys like the son of the priest now wore shoes but many others like the rag because in my neighborhood remain shoeless let me explain you what she said the man from adipi whose father was a priest always prayed at the temple for a pair of shoes he gets the shoes 30 years later when the writer visits the temple the new priest's son was wearing a school dress with socks and shoes the writer is trying to show that the position of priests have improved over 30 years but the rag pickers still remain shoeless my introduction with the barefoot rag pickers lead me to see mapuri a place on the edge of delhi yet miles away from it symbolically those who live here are squatters who came from bangladesh back in 1971. squatters means illegal settlers sahab's family is among them the place was then a wasteland it still is but now it isn't empty in structures of mud with roofs of de paulin devoid of sewage drainage or running water live 10 000 rag pickers they have lived here for more than 30 years without an identity without permits but with ration cards that gets their names on voters lists and enable them to buy grain food is more important for survival than identity why did you all leave your beautiful land of greenfields and rivers if at the end of the day we can feed our families and go to bed without an aching stomach we would rather live here than in the fields that give us no grain wherever they find food they pitch their tents that become transit homes children grow up in them and become partners in survival and survival in sea mapuri means rag picking through the years they became professional in rag picking garbage to them is gold it is their daily bread a roof over their heads even if it is a leaking roof but for children it is even more sahab says i sometimes find her p even a 10 rupee note when you can find a silver coin in garbage you don't stop searching as there is hope of finding more it seems that for children garbage has a meaning different from what it means to their parents for the children it is wrapped in wonder for the elders it is the means of survival one winter morning i saw sahib standing by the fenced gate of the neighborhood club watching two men dressed in white playing tennis i like the game i go inside when no one is around the gatekeeper lets me use the swing saheb 2 is wearing tennis shoes that look strange over his discolored shirt and shorts he says as explanation someone gave them to me the fact that they are discarded shoes of some rich boy who perhaps refused to wear them because of a hole in one does not bother him for one who has walked barefoot even shoes with the hole is a dream come true but the game he is watching so intently is out of his reach this morning saheb is on his way to the milk booth in his hand is a steel canister i now work in eddie stall down the road i'm paid 800 rupees a month and all my meals do you like the job his face i see has lost the carefree look the steel canister is heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder the bag was his own but