On poverty

As written on 24th June 2009

This one is specially for the general mass of Mumbai. People who have seen only a pseudo face of poverty. In Mumbai, we see beggars all around. We donate them and most of the time we do not do so. Some of us know about the organized setup that exists, using them. Those who know about this ignore them because they know that our money's benefit would be reaped by somebody else. But poverty is also a reality in India.

There exists poverty where people suffer from hunger and helplessness. Anyone who has moved out of Mumbai and specially to small towns and villages must have seen such poverty. Poor small kids, never knowing what exists beyond slogging from dawn to dusk only to earn few rupees. I remember a scene from the bollywood movie "Swades" which almost everytime fills my eyes with tears. A scene where a small kid runs towards the train after seeing it from a distance with a kettle of water and a bucket of mud-cups to sell water. He literally begs to passengers to buy one cup of water. The price he quotes is 25 paisa. You know what is 25 paisa? It is 1/4th of a rupee and approx. 1/200th of a dollar. He sells 1 cup of water for 1/200th of a dollar. And for this he goes to maximum possible number of passengers carrying a weight close to half of his body weight. And he does so for the entire day.

What he is living is a childhood. Best time of one's life? His example is still better than many others who live a worse life. And this is a reality in India. Real poverty. In Mumbai, we do not see the extent to which poverty can push a kid, a family to live in helplessness. But India's small towns and villages are full of such examples. Sometimes i feel that we do not fathom how bad the face of poverty can be and we leave it there.

If we don't see anything doesn't mean it does not exist.

A Mall

As written on 4th May 2009

Malls have popped up everywhere like Mushrooms in the country and specially in tier 1 cities like Mumbai. It is a great concept. Visitors get a good hang out place. Good value proposition for retailers and all the riches for the owners. Over all a very good face of Indian economy as well as money circulates in bulk.

I keep visiting malls near my home and enjoy them too. This Sunday i visited City Center for usual hang out with no set agenda. I saw a person there who was cleaning the speed breakers (those new plastic ones) just outside the parking area. He was doing it by sitting near the speed breakers with a cloth and a bucket of water. I was in a car and he politely got up and moved aside for me to pass. It was 2 in the afternoon. Really hot. Something struck me. I thought, considering the rush of people to the mall, how many times does he have to get up in between his work. What a frustration it would be for this guy. In early 20s, how he must be feeling about it. No, I am not saying that he deserves more than what what he is doing without knowing anything about him. I am not saying give him an AC office. But for a mall where average weekly spending must be in lakhs of rupees, can't the administration think of providing him a hand moper so that he doesn't have to at least get up again and again? Can't they provide him a cap so that he can avoid some of the blaze from the sun directly over his head? I thought it cannot be a very difficult decision to pass such a meager requirement. The question i believe is not of affordability i guess. The question really is if him immediate manager or for that matter the management of the mall, give any damn care for such people who keep there mall shining every day. I don't think the manager would have thought of him as a person washing the speed breakers on the road with a tiny peace of cloth in the blazing sun where every other half minute he has to get up because a car would pass.

May be for the manager he is just a resource used to complete one of the many tasks to keep the mall shining. It is harsh to do so but is true that while we are setting ourselves up to move upwards in every possible way, we are not thinking about some people who are also contributing to the best they can. The only thing that we should keep in mind is that they are people with thoughts, emotions and ambitions like we are. They don't want to be treated the way they are treated, specially, when it would not take more than 100 bucks to be spent for a quarter of an year by an institution which earns in lakhs every week.

Absolute Fear

As written on 30th Mar 2009

Do you know the face of absolute fear. I didn't know. I have felt afraid at many occasions but not absolute fear. Do you remember the feeling when you were ill-prepared for an exam or you narrowly escaped an accident or where one of your close ones was seriously sick. Do you remember the difficulty in breathing on such occasions. Not able to pull in that gust of air and not wanting to push it out either.

I saw a video today on youtube. I saw absolute fear on his face. His heart must have been pumping gallons of blood a minute. The video was about Malavi and its problems of alarming number of AIDS victims. He was one of them. What i saw was a video but i could not stop thinking that there are actually people out there. Looking at the same expression of absolute fear in the mirror every day. On their own faces. Knowing that absolute darkness awaits for them. Waiting it to happen. Sooner or later...

Look out for "I am because we are" on Youtube.