Ajay was seven when he lost his family. He got disoriented in the middle of Mumbai’s Ganesh Festival, not knowing that he would never see his parents again.
Police officers found him and sent him to a children’s home in Patna. But Ajay – who likes to go by Max – was not happy there. He was beaten regularly. With a few friends, he ran away to Delhi, where he joined a gang and mastered the art of pick-pocketing.
That was thirteen years ago. Now 20, Max is finishing high school and working as a part-time tour guide with the Salaam Baalak Trust, a non-profit NGO that works with street children.
I think it’s great, the Delhi Walk Festival, I wouldn’t have been able to come here if it hadn’t been for that and I’m getting to see parts of Delhi that I’ve never seen before in a completely different way. You never really get out of your car and walk around Delhi this much, so I think it’s a really cool idea to do a festival.Rochelle Rao, Miss India 2012 and Bigg Boss finalist
I think that something like this makes you aware that there is the other side to every city. So I think it was a good experience for me, and me being from Delhi I always loved the city, it’s got a certain history and vibrancy about it and I think that’s all put together in what we did today.Keith Sequeira, Model and Bigg Boss finalist
Salaam Baalak Trust, launched in 1988, organises regular walking tours to show tourists and Delhiites the reality of street living around the New Delhi Railway Station. Some of these children, like Max, become guides as they get older.
The walk this Monday morning was just one of more than 80 walks organised by Delhi I Love You, a socio-cultural movement, as part of the Delhi Walk Festival.
In just seven days, the Festival will include heritage, food, nature, alternative, architectural and artistic walks for 400 rupees per person.
We were thinking of creating a festival as a way to start a discussion about how to be a pedestrian in this city. We think the more we walk, the more we’ll respect our city.Thomas Ellis, producer of Delhi I Love You
Through the walks, Ellis says he hopes to make people think twice about throwing trash from their cars and to consider the differences in what it is like to walk through Delhi as a man or a woman.
The festival ends on Sunday.
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