Vicky Roy was born to parents who were too poor to raise him. They gave him away to his grandparents when he was two years old. At the age of eleven he ran away from his home in Purulia - "I wanted to roam around" - and boarded a train to New Delhi where he spent the next year on the railway station, and at a dhaba, collecting used plastic bottles, washing dishes, making chapatis. He slept in night shelters - "you could use a blanket for two rupees" - till he came under the care of the Salaam Balak Trust. Vicky became literate, but couldn't cope with the idea of an education. He found a friend in a camera - "I felt it would help me roam around" - and decided to photograph others like him, living on the street and in the Trust's home, Apna Ghar. Vicky's first exhibition 'Street Dreams' opened at the IHC in the EA gallery in 2007. His photographs have now travelled across several countries. "I've only been to three", he says. 'Home Street Home' showcases the best of this work, from survival to choice, portraits of his fellow travellers, a mirror of his own life, observed with recognition.
