Madhuresh Kumar Singh wants to erase the painful memories of the Covid lock-down and look forward to better days in 2021. Singh, 35, landed in Mumbai in 2012 from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, to make a living and take care of his wife, two sons and four brothers back home. He stayed in a tiny room, along with two other auto-rickshaw drivers, in Juhu and earned around Rs 30,000 a month. Singh says he could comfortably pay his auto-rickshaw loan instalment of Rs 5,000 a month, the room rent of Rs 2,000 and meet other expenses. Every month, he would send a big chunk of his earnings to his family. “Life was going smooth, though I had higher aspirations,” he says.
Singh’s life took a U-turn with the lockdown in end-March.…