The Dream Chasers

Holed up in a tiny room in Ber Sarai, Ravi came to Delhi a year ago to prepare himself for the Civil Services exam. Along the same lines, Abhishek Kumar came to Delhi from Allahabad to groom himself for the civil services exam and that is when he picked up the habit of spending the evening at the square. After all, after spending twelve to thirteen hours cooped up in a constricting space, this gives him a chance to relax over some chai and catch up with friends.

There are three kinds of people in Ber Sarai—those who are nursing a dream, those who have realized it and those who have lost.

They all come.
They hope.
But they never leave...

For the IAS, CAT, JEE and a hundred other competitive exam hopefuls, Ber Sarai is almost a rite of passage. Almost as much as the mandatory prayer offering at the close at hand Ayyappa Temple.

For the thousands of students who pour in from the neighboring cities and towns, Ber Sarai and adjoining Katwariya Sarai serve as the base for the rigorous and often grueling time till the examinations.

Predictably, Ber Sarai abounds with book stores spilling over with text books and tomes on how to crack these tests and coaching centers. Any available space is immediately appropriated by advertisements for ‘100 percent and assured success in exams.’

However, the most obvious reason apart, the small square also serves as a breather from the long days. And longer nights.

Even on a hot, sultry summer evening, it is almost impossible to find an empty space to plop down on. Every inch of space in the square is lined with idle people. There are some who have finished the whole exam scene a long time back, but are still regulars there. There are also those who work nearby – in the swanky Capital Court Building, Yusuf Sarai, Vasant Vihar & Kunj, R.K. Puram – they too have become victims of coming there on most evening and staying till sundown. They have become compulsive people-watchers.

With JNU on one side and IIT on the other, Ber Sarai has turned into a students’ collective and Kerala Café and the Shri Ram Sweets Centre keep the endless cups of chai coming and conversation flowing.

And beyond the umpteen grainy green glasses, some make it over the threshold while most just dream a different dream.

(Picture Courtesy - The Web)