Vikram Singh

An unassuming young fellow when you see him at first. He’s the guy who stands outside my local bakery with his fruit cart, ready to blend fruit-juices for anyone who wants. Mango, apple, orange, watermelon, chico (Sapota)—you name it—he blends it, even plans to add Strawberries to the mix someday.

Anyway, while I was there yesterday, explaining to him how I had only one vice to bear, and that’s eating junk food like chikki, and snorting hordes and hordes of Coke (that’s Coca Cola mind you, not the other Coke), he jokingly smiled at me and pulled up a chair and decided to spend some time chit-chatting, while business was a little slow.

And here I thought he was only some guy with a fruit-cart, making juices for anyone who wanted… I tell you, I wouldn’t have given him a second thought if I didn’t know any better, and I didn’t, but there’s more (much more) than meets the eye to Mr. Vikram.

He’s from Jharkhand, a newly carved out state in eastern India. I thought good, there’s something to talk about. I’d always wanted to talk to the guy, and find out what it was that makes a person want to become a fruit-juice seller like him. So, Mr. Singh proceeded to sit down and tell me about his life, and I proceeded to listen.

When he was in his seventh or eighth class, his father died. Killed more like it. Murdered by some goons while Vikram and his family were away, attending a wedding, out of town. They tried to catch the culprits who were responsible for the crime, but the only thing that it got them was Vikram being arrested for the murder and being sent to jail where he had to spend four years before he was set free.

And the goons, what happened to them? Well, they had “connections”, Political connections, so no jail time for them. Anyway, after things cooled down a bit, Vikram, his mom, brother and sister decided to get out of the place as soon as possible.

Which brought them to where I live, Hyderabad. They stay in a place called JD Methla, which is about an hour’s drive away from the city by bus. Him, his elder brother, younger sister and his mom. He had a friend who was staying here who taught him the fruit-juice trade. And after a false start here and there, he’s finally learnt his trade.

So, the day starts for him early in the morning, getting up, taking a bath and getting ready for work, and making the commute to the bakery where he runs his stand, and then spending the entire day there, and then closing his shop at night time and making the long journey back home again.

But he loves it. He says he loves his work. He works for 15 hours a day, and is on the road travelling the other three, which gives him about 6 hours to sleep, and even that’s too much for him. Water, water he says "water is the only thing I need". 20 liters of water a day. Food he can do without, but water is something he absolutely needs.

So that’s the story about Vikram. What does he want from his life??? Oh, just one thing… to earn lots and lots of cash so that he can get his sister married someday. He’s 18 right now, so he figures he has loads of time. His sister’s still in School, and his elder brother’s always there.