“I have been selling toys outside the Marghazar Zoo for the last 14 years. I have acquired a licence from the Capital Development Authority to sell toys outside the zoo. I have to get the licence renewed after every six months for which I pay a fee of Rs2,000.

I have also lived in Karachi where I worked as a fruit vendor. I went to the port city in 1988 and stayed there till 2003. All this time, my family lived with me. But when the security situation in Karachi deteriorated, I shifted my family to my hometown Mansehra. I myself moved to Lahore where I started selling hand-me-downs.

I did not live in Lahore for long. I decided to move to Islamabad for two reasons: one it was close to my native city and secondly work was far better in Islamabad than in Lahore.

I have rented a house in a katchi abadi in E-9 for Rs4,000. I earn between Rs800 to Rs1,000 a day.

My father was a tenant farmer, and since a very young age, me and my brother would go with him to work on the field. I never attended school. I think my parents did not have the awareness of the importance of education. They lived on a day-to-day basis. My father’s sole aim was to provide for his family, and when we grew up a little, he got us involved in his work too.

In the 1990s, my elder brother got an opportunity to travel to Saudi Arabia for work. But tragedy struck, and he died in a road accident. He had a wife and son. Their responsibility also fell on me but I did not have the resources to look after them. After a few months of my brother’s death, we got my sister-in-law married again and she took her son with her. I have four daughters and a son. Two of my daughters are married while two are studying. My son works as a house servant with a family in Lahore. The family has been very kind to me. It has not only provided my son work, but is also bearing the expense of his education.”

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019