Lalit, The Lapka

How a nonentity made himself a star

- Suniti Kharbanda

His parents had named him Lalit, which was the name of the reigning Bollywood hero. It was a different matter that he was a scrawny tiny baby with a withered left hand. After all, he was the son that they had always craved for, after begetting three daughters. He was the hero in the lives of his parents who were daily wage earners in Agra.

Growing up in this environment of poor, hard working parents, young dependant sisters and the great social divide between the rich tourists coming to the Taj Mahal was enough to make Lalit’s blood boil. Why was life so unfair? Why couldn’t he and his family be comfortably off? His poverty spurred him to make something of his life. He was determined to earn money and live like a hero.

Being the hub of all foreign tourists visiting India, Agra managed to somewhat feed its multitude of poor residents due to the largesse of these visitors. Most of the foreigners could not resist the tear-jerking stories of the residents and happily parted with food, money or clothing items. Poverty tourism had slowly become an industry in Agra! Lalit started making a study of foreign tourists and how he could get the better of them. The painstakingly indepth study by observation and conversation with tourists, locals as well as guides was such, that had he written a thesis on this, it would have earned him a PhD!