Saheb hails from the green fields of Dhaka. His house and field were swept away by the storms. Their poverty and pitiable conditions of life forced him to become a ragpicker in Seemapuri, a suburban colony of East Delhi. He is always looking for gold in garbage dumps. For the children like him garbage is wrapped in wonder and for the elders it is a means of survival. It provides the daily bread for the rag-pickers. Sometimes, Saheb finds a rupee and even a ten-rupee note or a silver coin. There is always hope of finding more. In Dhaka, he was not getting enough food for survival but in Delhi they go to their bed without an aching stomach.

The authoress sees the army of barefoot rag-pickers in her neighbourhood. They appear like morning birds and disappear at noon from the streets. She points that she has seen children walking barefoot in cities, on village roads. She takes this habit of remaining barefoot as a tradition to stay barefoot.

But remaining barefoot among the children is the perpetual state of poverty in their families. She notices many others like the ragpickers in her neighbourhood remain shoeless. For the children who have never owned shoes in their childhood, getting shoes become a dream comes true. Once Saheb gets a pair of tennis shoes with a hole. He wears it and does not mind any other thing. Lack of money is the real cause of not wearing footwear.

Saheb was a rag-picker. By chance he got a job to work at the tea stall down the road. There he was paid 800 rupees and all his meals. But his face lost his care free look. He was no longer his own master. The steel milk canister seemed heavier than his plastic bag. It belonged to his teamster and the life under the master was not a life of happiness.

The city of Firozabad is famous for its bangles. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in the business of making bangles. Firozabad is a centre of India’s glass-blowing industry. Since generations the families are working around furnaces, welding glass and making bangles for all the women on the land. The bangles are symbolised as woman’s Suhag.

There are bangles makers in the narrow streets of Firozabad in every house. The heaps of the spirals of bangles can be seen on every place there in Firozabad. All the members of the family can be seen welding and soldering the glass bangles in the different colours of a rainbow.