Outside the Railway colony, the road is wide; so is the pavement. On this pavement, sits a tailor with his sewing machine.
There is nothing overhead to protect him from the sun or the rain. A couple of friends sit beside him.
Shareef Ahmed has seven children. While one boy is a tailor like him, another is learning to repair motorbikes. The rest are in school. On an average, he earns Rs 50 a day. His wife and girls work on the sewing machine at their small home. They manage to earn as much as he does.
"Earlier I voted for Mulayam. I knew the candidate and so I voted for him. I do not need anything from an MLA so I did not ask him for anything. When you do not quarrel with anyone, why do you need to go to the police station? I do not have any business, so I do not need anyone's influence. Frankly speaking, I do not have any expectations from politicians. They might do something, they might not. I do not trust them," he says.
"I want to vote for the winner. My vote should not be wasted. In this election, I know two of the candidates but I have not decided whom to vote for. Anybody who thinks all Muslims vote for one party is mistaken. Everybody votes for the party they like," Shareef points out.
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