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Every morning as the clock strikes five, Baleshwar Kujur, a blind Adivasi man from the Kurukh community, sets out from his home and walks more than thirty minutes to reach St Mary’s Cathedral, Ranchi’s central Roman Catholic church.

Upon reaching, he enters a side street and takes out a foldable plastic stool, sits down and places a steel bowl near his feet. He spends the next eight hours there, seeking alms from passersby.

In the mornings, Kujur noted, the roads are empty so he walks quickly, without any fear. “Early mornings are the best. There is hardly anyone around, and I feel like I could run in the middle of the streets,” he said with a laugh.

The return journey in the afternoons alone is a different matter.

On April 29, I met Kujur at his regular spot near the cathedral. As the sun blazed at 36 degrees, Kujur sat with an umbrella, adjusting his stool and walking cane to not take up too much space as the crowds from nearby schools and colleges passed by. It was only after the crowd and traffic had dissipated that Kujur got up and began his long walk home.

While the shorter route from the cathedral to the bus stand would have...

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