I have worked as a security guard for six years. I got my first promotion only in October. In my new role, I am a supervisor and I oversee the work of two younger guards. The work has remained mostly the same though, working a 12-hour shift from 8 am to 8 pm.

My biggest wish in the new year is a higher salary. Right now, I get paid Rs 11,000 a month. If I got paid Rs 20,000 a month, that would be sufficient for me to support my family – my wife and my five children who are back home in Chhapra in Bihar. I would be able pay for my children’s education.

I did not work in Delhi all my life. I worked as a farmer till my early thirties, cultivating a small plot of land that I own jointly with my two brothers. Both of them worked in cities and I stayed in the village on our farm. My father was alive then and his income as a school teacher supported the family. After he died, it became difficult to live on the farm income alone.

I came to Delhi and worked a few months as a storekeeper at mobile phone outlet. When I left for home, taking leave for a month, I lost that job. Then I came to Delhi again in 2009, and with help from my brother-in-law who is also a security guard, I found my current job at a security agency.

After paying Rs 1,400 for my single room tenement in Tughlaqabad, and Rs 2,000 on other expenses, I manage to send Rs 7,000 back home every month to Chhapra in Bihar. I do not have enough money to put all my children through college. So, I paid college fees for my son but I asked my oldest daughter who is 19 to give up studying after she completed school.

My oldest son, who is 21, has cleared the physical examination for joining the Central Industrial Security Force. I am hopeful that he will clear the next stage of this exam in 2016 and will get a government job. A government job is the best job.

This year I found a match for my oldest daughter, a boy who has a good job in Bangalore. In 2016, I plan to organise her engagement.

Once all this is done, if I have any savings left, then I wish to undertake a pilgrimage for the first time and visit Char Dham.