Little Bangladeshi Rag-picking Buddhas

I was at the Vivekanand Camp jhuggi-cluster in Chanakya Puri today. About 80 jhuggis were gutted in a fire here 4 days back.

The fire started at around 3:00 PM, the hottest time of the day and all was lost within 20 minutes. There was no chance of salvaging anything but your young ones and infirm elders, if any. Wasim, a boy of about 7 did manage to save his 2 parrots though.

Most of those hit by the tragedy were rag-pickers of Bangladeshi origin, the lowest in the pecking order in the jhuggi-cluster, pariahs in this pariah world. Last, among equals. The biggest of their current worries, more pressing than even food, is to get their jhuggi space back. They fear that they could get duped by the local corporator, a Congress goon and bullied by his strongmen during re-allocation. They could get a jhuggi assigned for themselves, when they lost none and then rent it out. They say empires have been built this way. 'When there is blood on the street, buy land.' Buffett would smilingly approve, even recommend - a 'unique buying opportunity'.

The lack of drama at the site confounds me; feels like something is amiss. They’d been lounging around in 43C for 4 straight days without a shower and a change of clothes. The composure is unsettling. Little Bangladeshi, rag-picking Buddhas, I say. I give away clothes and shoes. They start talking. Some are feeling victimized, some are vengeful, some scandalous. Women break into soft sobs as they speak to me. I lean in like a voyeur, curious to see if they are crying indeed. They are.

A young woman catches my eye. The radiance of her skin oozes through caked sweat and dirt, subdued. Hardship has tempered her raw beauty. It would be lost in a few more years, as hopelessness gets indelibly imprinted, I estimate. She has lovely breasts; soft, full, well-formed. No French inner-wear and yet no sag. Life refuses to be trapped in the matrices of our making. I let her be. 

No help came from The British School, housed in the ugliest, bomb-shelter of a building, just across the lane. Jesus & Mary and Maitreyi College, stellar institutions of the Delhi University, are not too far; no assistance from them either. It’s admission season and cut-offs are projected to spike up to 94%. 91% for evening college. Social ethics and civic responsibility were long before culled from the curriculum.

I though, have decided not to use air-conditioning for today, in solidarity.