Educação pode mudar sua vida

New Dehli's Paharganj rail station is humming with sound and crawling with people. The gray platforms are bathed in white light. The train engines belch smoke and whistle like impatient bulls.

If you were to search for me in the crowded maze, where would you look? You would probably try to find me among the dozens of street children who are stretched out on the smooth concrete floor in various stages of rest and slumber¹. You might² even imagine me as an adolescent vendor, peddling plastic bottles containing tap water from the station's toilet as pure Himalayan mineral water. You could³ visualize me as one of the sweepers in dirty shirts and torn pants shuffling _I_ the platform, with a long swishing broom transferring dirt from the pavement _II_ the track. Or you could look for me among the regiments of red-uniformed porters bustling about with heavy loads on their heads. 

Well, think again, because I am neither a vendor, nor porter, nor sweeper⁴. Today I am a genuine passenger⁵, travelling to Mumbai, in the sleeper⁶ class no less, and with a proper⁷ reservation. I am wearing a starched white bush shirt made 100% cotton and Levi's jeans-yes, Levi's jeans, bought from the Tibetan Market. I am walking purposefully _III_ platform number five to board the Paschim Express for Mumbai. There is a porter⁸ trudging along by my side carrying a light-brown suitcase on his head. The porter has been hired by me, and the suitcase on his head belongs to me. The suitcase does not contain any money. I have heard too many stories⁹ about robbers¹⁰ on trains that drug you at night and make off with your belongings¹¹ to take the chance of keeping the most precious cargo of my life − my salary¹² from the Taylors − in my suitcase. It is inside my underwear. I take a quick look _IV_ the loose notes in my front pocket. I reckon I will have just enough to take an auto-rickshaw from Bandra Terminus to Salim's room in the Ghatkopar slum. Won't Salim be surprised to see me arrive in a three-wheeler¹³ instead of on the local train? And when he sees the game I bought for him, I hope he doesn't faint from happiness.