Contd...P/1
I have visited areas like kalachowki, Parel, Dadar, Lalbagh, Byculla, Thane, Chembur, Juhu, Girgaon chowpatti, Worli and many other places of religious significance like Haji Ali and the Siddhi Vinayak Mandir. I found not so admirable but true faces, grim faces of poverty. I am not financially capable enough to help everyone I meet all the time. But, I did my bit during my short stay in the month of Sept 2010 to Feb 25th 2011. I stayed there for 22/23 days in the first two trips and the last one starting 20th Jan 2011 extended more than a month. People throng the colaba area to see the Gateway of India, The Taj and beyond overlooking the territorial waters of the Indian Dominion. How many of us do look into the mode of existence of hawkers (woman mostly) alongwith their children who sell balloons and other toys/wares to visitors both national and international. I have seen a woman selling colourful balloons and plastic toys to tourists but her own child was wearing a dirty short pant and was bare bodied. The child was playing on the dirty plastic mat which is used to place her wares on display. The tourists like to see the setting sun from the "The Gateway of India", but how many of us do watch the sun set on the lives of many such helpless women everyday? Probably none.
After six decades of Independence our country has only added to the populace below the poverty level. Their broken down shanty and dark settlements along the outskirts of Mumbai shorelines are worth seeing and needs attention. It can not be said that they live, it is just that they are surviving one day after another. They wake up with the expectation that the "today" will be better than the "yesterday". But in reality it does never happen. They keep on the struggle for existence and betterment. They do not know when they will live atleast like proper human beings. Many NGOs exist in and around Mumbai but they have done little or less to benefit and uplift them. The ratio of persons in need to the ratio of helping hand is meagre. The proportion is going out of hand and the helping part is always infinitely small. In a fast rolling life as in this megapolis, 24 hours a day seems a much lesser time for this good work. Here people have no time to stand and stare. Mumbai is also home to lakhs and lakhs of labourers who come from villages from all corners of India in search of employment and better living. But they mostly find it hard to keep body and soul together. Land is costlier than gold and it originated as the land of fishermen and their settlements. It metamorphosed into the megapolitan of skyscrapers.
The metro has grown in height but not at heart. The people kiving here are after money to such an extent that they keep the city alive and kicking all the time. The city never sleeps. Sadly speaking, the one who never sleeps is not properly awake too. A true fact and tragic one ofcourse with the mass of this megapolis. They live to exist but never exist to live. Life is all about amassing wealth for one person and keeping body and soul together for another. Hope lives on and so does the people in the shanty shelters. Monsoon wrecks havoc for these people. I have seen them remaining drenched for hours without no other clothing to change. They have accepted this way of life. It is not saddening that they are poor but that they will never know what it is to be like a human; What it is to lead a normal human life and how it should be. Even a sunny day does not brighten their life, neither does darkness push them into oblivion. I recollect the lines of truth sung by vocal maestro Late Mohd. Rafi jee,
"Aae dil hain mushkil jeena yahan,
jara hatke jara bachhke,
yeh hain bombay meri jaan..."
I have visited areas like kalachowki, Parel, Dadar, Lalbagh, Byculla, Thane, Chembur, Juhu, Girgaon chowpatti, Worli and many other places of religious significance like Haji Ali and the Siddhi Vinayak Mandir. I found not so admirable but true faces, grim faces of poverty. I am not financially capable enough to help everyone I meet all the time. But, I did my bit during my short stay in the month of Sept 2010 to Feb 25th 2011. I stayed there for 22/23 days in the first two trips and the last one starting 20th Jan 2011 extended more than a month. People throng the colaba area to see the Gateway of India, The Taj and beyond overlooking the territorial waters of the Indian Dominion. How many of us do look into the mode of existence of hawkers (woman mostly) alongwith their children who sell balloons and other toys/wares to visitors both national and international. I have seen a woman selling colourful balloons and plastic toys to tourists but her own child was wearing a dirty short pant and was bare bodied. The child was playing on the dirty plastic mat which is used to place her wares on display. The tourists like to see the setting sun from the "The Gateway of India", but how many of us do watch the sun set on the lives of many such helpless women everyday? Probably none.
After six decades of Independence our country has only added to the populace below the poverty level. Their broken down shanty and dark settlements along the outskirts of Mumbai shorelines are worth seeing and needs attention. It can not be said that they live, it is just that they are surviving one day after another. They wake up with the expectation that the "today" will be better than the "yesterday". But in reality it does never happen. They keep on the struggle for existence and betterment. They do not know when they will live atleast like proper human beings. Many NGOs exist in and around Mumbai but they have done little or less to benefit and uplift them. The ratio of persons in need to the ratio of helping hand is meagre. The proportion is going out of hand and the helping part is always infinitely small. In a fast rolling life as in this megapolis, 24 hours a day seems a much lesser time for this good work. Here people have no time to stand and stare. Mumbai is also home to lakhs and lakhs of labourers who come from villages from all corners of India in search of employment and better living. But they mostly find it hard to keep body and soul together. Land is costlier than gold and it originated as the land of fishermen and their settlements. It metamorphosed into the megapolitan of skyscrapers.
The metro has grown in height but not at heart. The people kiving here are after money to such an extent that they keep the city alive and kicking all the time. The city never sleeps. Sadly speaking, the one who never sleeps is not properly awake too. A true fact and tragic one ofcourse with the mass of this megapolis. They live to exist but never exist to live. Life is all about amassing wealth for one person and keeping body and soul together for another. Hope lives on and so does the people in the shanty shelters. Monsoon wrecks havoc for these people. I have seen them remaining drenched for hours without no other clothing to change. They have accepted this way of life. It is not saddening that they are poor but that they will never know what it is to be like a human; What it is to lead a normal human life and how it should be. Even a sunny day does not brighten their life, neither does darkness push them into oblivion. I recollect the lines of truth sung by vocal maestro Late Mohd. Rafi jee,
"Aae dil hain mushkil jeena yahan,
jara hatke jara bachhke,
yeh hain bombay meri jaan..."
Prasenjit©1997-2011
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