A cycle and a loudspeaker accompany Ladoo as he makes his way around Chennai’s neighbourhoods, gathering old clothes. He turns off his loudspeaker around certain homes. "They don’t like the noise", he explains to me, as I stop him for a chat. Laddo has been in this business for twenty-five years now. "In all this time, people have not changed", he tells me philosophically. "Only my cycle and loudspeaker have". "They know me by my hat", he says. "You can ask anyone for the ‘bhai’ with a hat". I ask him why the name ‘Ladoo’? "I was a chubby child," he says,…
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