Gurugramwale: The boy with the butterfly tattoos

Avinash is a few months short of 20 and wants to start his life afresh in some other city. He was actually speaking in a barely audible voice and seemed so shy that he started to chat by writing responses on the mobile phone instead.

But why does he want to quit Gurugram, a metropolis of opportunities? Describing himself as a college student, he averts his eyes and looks down on the floor. Waiting for a Rewari-bound local in the city’s railway station, he explains that he has lived all his life here and now wants to go to a more open city where he feels freer.

For example, his folks at home don’t like the way he uses a hair band to push back his long locks. Then there’s the matter of butterflies. Butterfly tattoos adorn his hands. There’s a larger butterfly on his neck, he shows, turning down his head to give a better view.

There are butterflies in other places, too.

The family doesn’t like such tattoos. Nor his finger nails, which are painted pink today. Or his three finger rings.

The young person hesitantly poses for photos but requests his side profile to be not published. After a while he gets up from the bench and lazily sits down again the next moment, wishing to escape to Mumbai or Bengaluru.

He now sits still, chin resting on hand.