Kasarwadi

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There is a chawl opposite our building and today I am very tempted to call it a slum. The people work for the Municipal Corporation. They are garbage cleaners or garbage pickers. They get this house by the BMC. Once the person working for BMC retires, he gives the job to one of his chosen sons. They do have more than two children. The boys or sons are jobless. The father supports them till he dies. The sons wait for the job.The father can give the job to any son and most likely it is the youngest son. Till then the mothers work as house maids. These sons hang around the full day. They do not study and they do not want to take up a peon s job. They will not work as waiters. Lots of them are good musicians so they get orders to play in the weddings. Each wedding baraat earns them around three hundred Rupees. They are very happy with that money. This business is seasonal. They get the festivals and the visarjan band bajaa too. Lot of these boys are alcoholics. The parents do not consider them alcoholics.They feel the boys need it. There is a shop in the slum which sells paan with some kind of edible drug or nasha. Some of them eat that too. They are living their lives in this stupor of alcohol, nashe waala paan and the wait for the BMC job. Lot of the people who have this cleaning jobs are chronic alcoholics. They are dying and the family is happy that the job remains within the family and the younger one gets it. Men and Women are having extra marital affairs with in the chawl. Some men have two wives and then one wife is given a house in Nalla Sopara or Virar. They get brides for these sons from their own community of cleaners. The son s parents at the time of each wedding inform the girl's parents that this son will get the BMC job. On basis of this alone , the marriage proposal is sealed. When the girl comes to sasural, she realizes that all are waiting for that one BMC job.

Its a very sad state of affairs. The political candidates promise them jobs which they are incapable of giving them. They promise to refurbish their gym, organise some free pilgrimage and the promise to make a Sai temple. All this rot is happening right in the heart of Mumbai at Shivaji park. These people are flanked by head offices of various political parties but does any party care for them? Its a decaying community and the rot has set in very deep. This is the so called educated culturally rich part of Mumbai and this is the state of affairs. Who is responsible for this? Which foreign NGO would like to come here? Will this place and people residing here transform? Will they ever learn from their surroundings? They have been here for generations, so they are not villagers. Then what is it that makes them worse? Why don't they want to be successful? Why don't they want to go out and work? Almost all have a mobile phone, where does this money come from? Its a cause for concern and I don't want to blame the politician alone. If the slum has all the money for grand weddings, DJ nights for mehndi and haldi functions, then surely the people have the brains and money too. The question is why are they not putting their brains and brawn to good use?

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