This is a story I wrote for a book to benefit Unicef called The Weekenders: Adventures in Calcutta (Ebury Press). A group of writers, including Monica Ali and Irvine Welsh, travelled to India in 2003 to write personal stories inspired by a remarkable city. This piece is about a very expensive and ambitious hotel, and the people who work there.

My name is Sanjay, and I was born in Assam. I’m 23 now. I studied in school up to Class 8, but when I was 13 my father lost his job and I was forced to work to help the family. First I joined a plywood factory and then I worked in a garage changing tyres and mending punctures. In 1997 there was a call from Amatala, just outside Calcutta, to say there was a new plywood factory setting up, and I worked there. It was my job to carry chemicals to the machines and boilers. The chemicals were very strong and bad for your health.

My brother ran away from home in 1992, ran away to Delhi. He broke a container at home, and my father got angry and hit him, and the next morning he wasn’t there. He was about eight. He was away for two years and my mother and father had lost hope that he was alive but he came back two years later and we were so delighted to see him. In 1997 my sister was born with a handicap. She had club feet.

When I first came to Future Hope [a charity providing shelter and education to underprivileged children in Calcutta] I was having eating difficulties because of the chemicals. It was very interesting seeing all the children playing, because I didn’t do that much when I was a child. When I came here I felt like a child again. I’ve been here for four years, learning technical skills and going to school classes and working for an electrical company.
I heard about a job at the new hotel about six months ago. Everyone said it was going to be a special place, and everybody wanted to work there. I had two interviews at the hotel. First I went with my application, and they asked me where I had worked before. The job was to work in the kitchens, so I was asked why I wanted to work there, and if there were other departments I wanted to work in also. I said that I want to be a chef, a good chef, and I had to start at the bottom. There aren’t many people who could say they are a qualified chef, and I think there will always be work for me if I do that. If I am just a waiter - anybody can be a waiter and as a waiter I might not be in so much demand.

When I heard I got the job I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy. I heard a few months ago. They said they like me and want to take me in, but I have to pass my exams first. Computers, mathematics, science, English. They are in October, and so I’m working hard. I will begin by peeling foods, the fruit and vegetables, and I will start in one restaurant and then move to another, and then slowly I will learn more skills. I don’t know the salary at the moment but I think they will pay me well. My ambition is to be a chef in a most famous hotel, and I hope people will know of me.

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