The other day i was travelling down to kandivili when i realsied i had a flat tyre. So i decided to stop at the small road side punture shop just next to the signal near the Andheri flyover.Small shanties lined the road and small, dirty kids played on side of the highway, like it was their playground. It indeed was, the pace and speed of the cars notwithstanding, they continued with their game like nobody's business!
While the tyre was being repaired, I decided to take a look around. Right next to the shop sitting on the pavement was this garrishly dressed young woman. With ornate fake jewellery, badly done makeup and tired eyes, she just sat there. I guessed, she was waiting for her next customer...a lady of the night! The men, young lads more like, went about fixing the puncture like pros doing it for many years now.
The kids in the picture above, were the 2 little guys playing their imaginary game next to the highway, darting back and forth between 2-3 shanties. One little guy, the fellow in white, squats down to examine the repairs being done. I bend down and take a picture. The other toothless fellow steps on the tube and squirts it all over the muddy road! A stern look from the older boys makes him run back into the hut. But soon, he is back and just as naughty as ever.
I couldnt help smiling, they were just too cute to ignore. I had to take a picture. I have driven past this place so often over the years, but never stopped here. I have become so oblivious to the poverty, that we just ignore and walk past. The 2 little boys, dont even know their names, are just like any other numerous street children we find across Mumbai. In the trains selling small trinkets, on the roads washing cars, working at chaiwallas for a living, or worse still begging at the signal, or drugged into sleep to evoke a more emotional response from the general public!
Thousands of kids are brought to Mumbai every year to be abandoned by their parents on the station. Unable to afford food for an extra hungry mouth, they leave them in Mumbai to earn and make a living. Some do get reasonably ok jobs. But for a few, this is nothing short of hell. Raped, sodomised, molested, made to work like slaves in countless sweatshops...this then becomes life as they know it. Childhood's innocence lost forever.
These guys were the luckier ones. Living next to the puncture shop, they were learning the trade and would soon, in all probability, have their own little puncture shop at the corner of some road some day. The poverty, the filth, the atmosphere around just made no difference. They played, like all kids should. The smiles convey it all, dont they???I wish the same for all of Mumbai's little kids. I wish all could play, play with the same joy and laughter as i was able to when i was their age.
I wish these kids rather than repairing punctures could learn, read and write. Afterall every single kid on this planet desevers education.
I for one am on the verge of doing something in my own small way to help these street kids, I plan to teach some of the young street children through a few NGO's & its not that difficult all it requires is 2-3 hours every week in the evenings, even if you cant teach just spending time with them would make them so happy!
Its an african Proverb, " It takes a village to raise a child."We all have been fortunate Enough to have some one to take care of us...but we also have some who are not that fortunate..
I wish happiness to all the children of mumbai both rich and poor!! :)
While the tyre was being repaired, I decided to take a look around. Right next to the shop sitting on the pavement was this garrishly dressed young woman. With ornate fake jewellery, badly done makeup and tired eyes, she just sat there. I guessed, she was waiting for her next customer...a lady of the night! The men, young lads more like, went about fixing the puncture like pros doing it for many years now.
The kids in the picture above, were the 2 little guys playing their imaginary game next to the highway, darting back and forth between 2-3 shanties. One little guy, the fellow in white, squats down to examine the repairs being done. I bend down and take a picture. The other toothless fellow steps on the tube and squirts it all over the muddy road! A stern look from the older boys makes him run back into the hut. But soon, he is back and just as naughty as ever.
I couldnt help smiling, they were just too cute to ignore. I had to take a picture. I have driven past this place so often over the years, but never stopped here. I have become so oblivious to the poverty, that we just ignore and walk past. The 2 little boys, dont even know their names, are just like any other numerous street children we find across Mumbai. In the trains selling small trinkets, on the roads washing cars, working at chaiwallas for a living, or worse still begging at the signal, or drugged into sleep to evoke a more emotional response from the general public!
Thousands of kids are brought to Mumbai every year to be abandoned by their parents on the station. Unable to afford food for an extra hungry mouth, they leave them in Mumbai to earn and make a living. Some do get reasonably ok jobs. But for a few, this is nothing short of hell. Raped, sodomised, molested, made to work like slaves in countless sweatshops...this then becomes life as they know it. Childhood's innocence lost forever.
These guys were the luckier ones. Living next to the puncture shop, they were learning the trade and would soon, in all probability, have their own little puncture shop at the corner of some road some day. The poverty, the filth, the atmosphere around just made no difference. They played, like all kids should. The smiles convey it all, dont they???I wish the same for all of Mumbai's little kids. I wish all could play, play with the same joy and laughter as i was able to when i was their age.
I wish these kids rather than repairing punctures could learn, read and write. Afterall every single kid on this planet desevers education.
I for one am on the verge of doing something in my own small way to help these street kids, I plan to teach some of the young street children through a few NGO's & its not that difficult all it requires is 2-3 hours every week in the evenings, even if you cant teach just spending time with them would make them so happy!
Its an african Proverb, " It takes a village to raise a child."We all have been fortunate Enough to have some one to take care of us...but we also have some who are not that fortunate..
I wish happiness to all the children of mumbai both rich and poor!! :)
6 comments:
gud gud...sum parts jus remind me of shantaram..d way he's rittin d book....GO READ IT NA U LAZY BUM!!
i wonder who is anonymous!
i would like to think it is gregory david roberts him self!
nice nice i think this is the fate of us as humans though...being so self engrossed that we don't see anything apart from ourself... will leave you with that thought.
dude that was good 1 ......lemme kno if i could help maybe cme and teach just like yaa......
oh my...that was a really nice one...n so true...we all get so caught up in our own lil bsy lives that we dont care abt ppl like these kids...all we care abt is ourselves...
we have education n take it 4 granted...while there r soooo many out there dying to get a lil education...Its time we share our knowledge with those who lack it..
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