With a 9-month-long unbearable hot season, every year New Delhi simply forgets about her nasty foggy wintertime. But then again December comes and the whole city runs for cover.
Millions of blankets, shawls and sweaters wrap up delhitians across town. Everyone looks for repair and even dogs agree to wear little coats especially made for them.
In a few days New Delhi changes look. A thick gray fog envelopes everything form sunrise to sunset, but when the night comes something spectacular happens out there: thousands of little fires light up at once to fight the nastiest season.
“We light a bonfire every day at around 8 pm,” said rickshaw driver Mohammud Salim. “We get wood sticks from the park next by and light the fire with kerosene oil. Then we sit in circle and keep the fire alive until we fall asleep”.
Salim is one of the dozens of rickshaw drivers who live at the edge of Nizammuddin East, New Delhi upper class neighborhood. On the street. During wintertime, bonfires become part of his life.
“I have been leaving on the street for the past 24 years. I have 2 children and a wife in Bihar but I can’t effort them living here. I earn about 100-200 rupees per day. I rather send them money and sleep in a pipe on the street,” he continued.
“This is the second bonfire of this winter,” said his friend Kamal. “Usually we start in November, but this year it wasn’t so cold.”
“Winter came a bit late,” said Mr Venak of the Regional Meteorologial Center of New Delhi. “The temperature runs from 11 to 26 degrees, still 1 or 2 degrees above the normal, but we expect a drastic decrease by the end of the month.”
Though winter in Delhi is never extreme with night lows at about 3 / 4 degrees, for those thousands of people who live on the streets, this means a real challenge.
According to Mother NGO for Homeless over 70 thousand people live on the streets of Delhi and some of them don’t survive the cold season. “At least 18 homeless died last year,” reported Doctor Javed Khan of Mother NGO for Homeless. “This year we’ll try to minimize that number by providing 9 more shelters across the city by the end of next week.”
As the cold increases, many more fires pop up on the streets.
But bonfires in India are more than survivor kits. They are actually life-long traditions.
Many of India’s festivals and celebrations are conceived around the fire. Lohri in Punjab, Bhogali Bihu in Assam, Boghi in Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Mumbai are some of them. They all fall in January, the beginning of a new year. For them lighting up fires means new life, change, prosperity.
For many others it is a symbol for socialization.
“We have heaters in the house where we work, but every day at about 9 pm after work, we like to come here, light a bonfire, sit around it to chat a bit and relax,” said 22 year old cook Ahmed and driver Vinud who work for a wealthy family in Nizammuddin East.
A couple of friends come to sit together with Ahmed and Vinud around the little fire. Eight arms stretched toward the warmth. Someone else passes by and stops close to them. The group expands; there is space for everyone. A fire is a fire, fascinating and democratic.
It’s night in New Delhi. The thermometer reaches 10 degrees. The air is humid and thick but those sitting around their bonfires can forget about it for a little while.
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