Mumbai....some place..! I think I have a love-hate relationship with this city....financial capital...city of dreams...city of stars...at the same time...it's also a city of slums...abject poverty.
Today I was headed to the 'Mumbai property exhibition' held in the western suburban area- Bandra... this is supposed to be one of my serious initiatives in the direction of owning a house in Mumbai...if not to live myself...then may be as an investment...
As usual... I took a local train from Borivali and got down at Bandra this Sunday afternoon....but as I looked for exit at Bandra east platform, I found that due to some walker's bridge work.. I would have to take an exit route via the slums situated near the railway lines....my goodness... the sight of those clumsy slums was heart wrenching..... so called small huts or shanties...nothing but structures made of few wooden/steel bars and some large cloth covering it from top & sides....but I think probably there was a fire accident which burned down number of huts and these structures must be temporary ones....because I have seen slums in much better conditions...
Little children inside..some sleeping...some playing....ladies busy washing utensils..near sewage water...there is dirt and shit all over the place...it was like a scrapyard....so terrible conditions to live....looked like a refugee camp out there.....'how can human beings live in such conditions...that too not for few days or months...but for the whole life?' I thought, but then I was not watching this for the first time in my life...many a times I have seen slums and poverty in this city of dreams...! But I don't know why...today I was feeling ashamed of myself....I was thinking that I am so god damn lucky to be born in a well-to-do family....Suddenly I felt that God has given me everything....I grew up in a loving family....got well educated...got a decent job...got opportunities to see the world... yet I crib.....about high rents...unaffordable housing prices... and here millions are living out their whole lives literally in a toilet! Yet I have misused whatever God gave me.....I take all this comfort for granted...!
Another thought came in ..why there is so much poverty...and why such a huge divide between rich & poor? Why some people have to live like this....and some roam in air conditioned cars....just recently I read in the newspaper that these days lots of Indians are going for high-end luxury cars generally priced around Rs. 1 crore going even upto 20 crores! Such difference...Such gap...?
I don't know the reason .....there can be many....historic...karmic....economic...
Can't everyone get at least good and honourable living conditions....? What it would take to achieve that?
I don't know the solution either....
hmmm...Forget about it man....just sporadic thoughts...as usual...and no action....you are soon going to forget all about it and carry on your selfish living...so don't try to be a sympathetic hero of only words and no deeds...you moron!
