Meet biryaniwalla Majid Khan: India’s answer to Pakistan’s chaiwalla
Biryaniwalla Majid Khan gets a makeover. The moment we spotted Majid making biryani at a shop in east Delhi, we knew he was model material. Majid thought it was a joke when we told him that we wanted to do a shoot with him. He is not used to attention. Despite his good looks, height and physique, customers address him as ‘oye chhotu’. ‘Chal ek plate biryani laga’ is what he gets to hear throughout the day. Life’s tough for the 23-year-old. Majid slogs till 2am and returns to work at 7am. He earns `7,000 a month that he sends to his family. He doesn’t have a phone and doesn’t get to watch TV. He is the son of a daily wage labourer from Haldwani, Uttarakhand. He came to Delhi five months ago looking for work. He lives in a slum in a poky little room along with other workers. (Shara Ashraf/HT Photo) It wasn’t easy to convince Majid to shoot for us. He was unwilling to believe that he could be a model. “I don’t know anything about modeling. You can ask me about biryani,” he told us ...