“I was around 14 years old when I took up selling papadum, and it has been eight years now. My family is from Hafizabad where my father worked as a labourer. We are three brothers and three sisters. My youngest sister is studying in the 4th grade and she is the only one of us siblings to be going to school.

One of my brothers and sisters suffered epileptic attacks so frequently that they both broke their legs due to the falls, and now can’t walk.

I came to work in Islamabad due to extreme poverty. I stayed with some people from my village who had already come here and have been staying with them since. I do not have to worry about rent or food thanks to them.

I earn between Rs300 and Rs500 every day. I earn more during weddings. I stand outside halls where wedding guests buy my papadum. On such days, I can earn up to Rs800.

I buy papadum from Pirwadhai for Rs1,200 every morning. After that I head to various localities - the katchi abadis in Islamabad usually. The best thing about papadum is that they don’t go stale for even 10 days, but not in the monsoon. They don’t survive that long during the rainy days.

Once I met a very severe accident. I was on my bicycle when a car hit me. I fractured my leg which kept me out of work for a whole year.

That was the most difficult period. Though my village people took care of me, it was my family that had to face problems. I send Rs7,000 to Rs10,000 to my family every month. That whole year, I could not send them even a penny.”

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2018