Saheb

Saheb, whose full name grandly means "lord of the universe," is a young boy of the ragpicker community in Seemapuri, and the irony of that dignified name against his barefoot, ragged reality is one of the chapter's quiet aches. When the narrator first meets him he is a cheerful, restless child, forever roaming the streets and searching through heaps of garbage. Despite his hardship he is full of longing and wonder: he dreams of going to school, is fascinated by games like tennis that he can only watch from beyond a fence, and treats the rubbish dump almost as a place of small marvels where a stray coin can feel like treasure. He is, in short, a child still carrying a child's hopes. …