Two years ago, Ashraf, 21, had left his home in Anantnag, Kashmir, to find work in Delhi. On September 13, he lost his uncle Qasim, 25. The blasts also left a second uncle, Faruq, 38, severely injured. Himself sustaining minor injuries, a shaken Ashraf swore never to return to Delhi.

But economics, and the realisation that terror can strike anywhere, made this rickshaw-puller return to the city that took his uncle’s life but gave him an income. “I have a sense that no place is safe in India any more,” says the Class X passout. The irony is huge, for Ashraf chose to leave Kashmir to escape terrorism. “Where I lived, men used to come in the night with guns and pick up other boys. I didn’t want to go that way. My dream was to be on the other side, to help combat terrorism.”

So off he went to school. “My father did not study; I did. He is a farmer; I wanted to be something else. I wanted to work in the police, or the Army.”

That remained a dream, though, as Ashraf moved to Delhi at age 19 and took to pulling rickshaw, loading and unloading goods, and being the essential link for handicraft from the crowded Karol Bagh market to go to the rest of the country. He squints at little yellow slips — goods receipts — with a sense of responsibility. “You need money to be a policeman but my family didn’t have money. We don’t have shops like this in Anantnag,” he says, pointing to the sprawling market outside.

“And it takes hard work to gain the trust of a businessman.”

He returned, Ashraf says, simply because he could not afford to be jobless. And this unusual Delhiite is grateful to the city for giving him a place under the sun.

“Delhi has given me an income. I don’t live in very comfortable conditions in this city but I am able to make a living. Delhi at least opened its opportunities for me.”

But those same opportunities lead to responsibilities, he admits. “My younger sister Firdaus is in Class VI. She may become a school teacher and I have to give money to the family. The financial responsibility is even more with my uncle’s death.”

But there’s no escape from terror. His concerns for his family were echoed on November 26, when Mumbai was attacked. “I watched the Mumbai terror attack on television.”