Saturday, March 04, 2006

How do people survive

I just returned from my trip to mumbai, during my stay over there for past 5 days, i have been traveling a lot all through nariman point to wadala (e). A long stretch of road between these two places near to "Cotton Green" area was nothing but slums made upon the encrotchments of pavements. All the people living there nothing but the refugees from the Bangladesh. And to my surprise, they had made their home with two floors, ground and first. I can see each and every member of the house on road during any time of day.

I can't think how they managed to survive. There were as many as 10 people living in a temporary room of size 5 x 2 meter. How come they manage to live is one of the most surprising question for me?

I asked the cab driver and he replied with a slang "sahab, yeh saale to sirf chori kartain hain " (Sir, these people make their living only by theft and robbery). I came to know by the driver that they are the one involved in all the thefts related to the highways and dockyard. The cab driver laughed and said "Sahab, aur to aur apni sarkar bolti hai Mumbai ko Paris banayegee, NAMUMKEEN" (Sir, and our govt. says it will convert Mumbai into Paris, IMPOSSIBLE)

Also to my surprise each family consists of at least 4-5 children, I am unable to understand what these people think about their future, and how do they plan to feed and educated their children. While passing through those streets you can't bear the smell that surrounds that area, just imagine how they manage to live there 24x7.

I was not able to bear all that for more than three days and I changed my travel path.

And on the contrary I have some friends who are single, having a nice job and a good salary but they always complain over the living standard they are having, and those people at Mumbai I had seen are living without any complains.........