Jasmeen Bano wakes up to the rhythm of her hammock swinging between two Ashoka trees,the Humayuns tomb to her left and the smell of fresh lentils to her right. The day holds the promise of a tour to the zoo,a taste of the capitals street food and further journeys to the dargahs of North India. Jasmeen is two years old. Her parents agricultural labourers from Bahraich,Uttar Pradesh are taking her and her five-year-old brother to the bi-annual festival of Khwaja Garib Nawaz in Ajmer. The children look very happy. They do not seem to mind the excrement next to which their mother is cooking lunch,the flies that swarm over them and the food or the honks of traffic. Jasmeens is one among hundreds of families from Uttar Pradesh camping on Lodhi road,Mathura road and Moolchand road since Thursday,on their way to Ajmer. Each person pays a sum of Rs 1,400 to Rs 2,000 for the 10-day tour that includes stops at dargahs and tourist spots in Agra,Jaipur,Fatehpur Sikri,Lucknow and Dewa. The package does not include accommodation or food, Kalu from Sitapur said. With no arrangements for accommodation and food,once buses carrying the pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh reach Delhi,they park on the road and people spill on to the pavements to cook,wash and sleep next to traffic until its time to leave for the next destination. The buses have been coming and going for the last seven days, an officer at the Nizamuddin police station said. The buses have added to the congestion on the roads. The trees,railings around the parks and crematoriums on Lodhi road double as laundry hangers and hammock hooks. The parks in the area have been used as open-air toilets in the last week. On Monday,over 40 buses were parked on the roads in and around Nizamuddin and around 1,000 pilgrims were resting on the pavements. Earlier we used to park near the Red Fort,Jama Masjid or Nizamuddin but this year we were not allowed to,so we had to park here even though this place is very dirty, Puttan,another resident of Sitapur,said. We are provided with lodging and food during May. But since the November tour does not attract large crowds,we have to fend for ourselves, Havaldar,an agent conducting the tours for the last 21 years,said. He added that several residents of UP undertake the pilgrimage every year. However,39-year-old Mubarak Ali believes it is the best time of the year for the tour. The harvest season has ended and it will take two-three weeks before we start sowing. The weather is pleasant and we have some money in our hands, he said. His sentiment is echoed by most of the pilgrims.
