Curiosity and a friend's demand made me undertake a 4 km long walk from my campus to the glitzy, newly opened "mall for the urban rich" in a major shopping locality in the city of Bangalore. The young and the old seemed to flock to this humongous jazzy mall in the heart of one of the oldest and busiest areas in the city. Although I had ventured on the trip as a purely exploratory exercise it did end up being an eye opener in more ways than one.
Amidst the glitz and the glamor of the bright, freshly painted shops, shining glass walls and displays in the mall, I managed to see the real "India of today" staring back at me.
In the bright, air conditioned and well lit corridors of the mall, I saw this old destitute walking towards the counters selling wrist watches for the uber rich. I say so because each one there was encrusted with diamonds and were pricy enough that a graduate student like me would not even think of getting a watch like that for a long long time.
The old woman in question was frail and had hollow cheeks which only emphasized the empty eyes and the sadness within them. Enamored as she probably was, by the world of glitz and glamour around her, I could only wonder what she was thinking. Along with her, came along a young man (who I supposed to be her teenage son) and at that instant, I almost felt guilty for being there !! In a country which is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, where professionals are being produced by the millions, where consumerism is on an upswing, where the erstwhile concepts of saving for the future are out of the psyche, it did indeed seem strange to see those two people there. Actually, in the regimented daily existence, enclosed in the academic havens of a premier research institute in the country, i rarely encounter poverty, illiteracy or any of the other social problems that we hear about. I live in a world far away from the concerns of the everyday mundane and my only exposure to them remains through the newspaper (which of course, i realized on this fateful day that i was reading more as a source of general information). Things of course became stark and ugly when i saw those two people. I felt as if i was being held by my collar to register the reality as it really was. I lived in a country where such disproportionate growth was the norm.
While the rich got richer and more consumerist, mimicking the west, the poor seemed to get poorer. I could only stand and imagine what must be going through their minds as they saw such vulgar display of wealth and prosperity all around them. With an empty stomach and a leaking roof, i could'nt imagine anyone visiting this haven of consumerism and leaving without a sense of ill treatment and hatred for the others who seemed happy there. They seemed so out of place and lost in this maze and i could feel this incredible chill to the very core of me..
It was a picture that will remain etched in my memory for a long time to come. Life is unfair and for some reason, despite all efforts, i dont see a causality for it. Why are people placed in such diverse circumstances ? It almost seems that despite all the physical laws known to man, there is a certain degree of stochasticity associated with each of our lives. Some end up calling this element of uncertainity as spirituality, "supernatural elements" and God, I however, am content with calling it as purely random chance.
I just happened to have a slightly bigger number on my roll of the dice than what that young man did...
Amidst the glitz and the glamor of the bright, freshly painted shops, shining glass walls and displays in the mall, I managed to see the real "India of today" staring back at me.
In the bright, air conditioned and well lit corridors of the mall, I saw this old destitute walking towards the counters selling wrist watches for the uber rich. I say so because each one there was encrusted with diamonds and were pricy enough that a graduate student like me would not even think of getting a watch like that for a long long time.
The old woman in question was frail and had hollow cheeks which only emphasized the empty eyes and the sadness within them. Enamored as she probably was, by the world of glitz and glamour around her, I could only wonder what she was thinking. Along with her, came along a young man (who I supposed to be her teenage son) and at that instant, I almost felt guilty for being there !! In a country which is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, where professionals are being produced by the millions, where consumerism is on an upswing, where the erstwhile concepts of saving for the future are out of the psyche, it did indeed seem strange to see those two people there. Actually, in the regimented daily existence, enclosed in the academic havens of a premier research institute in the country, i rarely encounter poverty, illiteracy or any of the other social problems that we hear about. I live in a world far away from the concerns of the everyday mundane and my only exposure to them remains through the newspaper (which of course, i realized on this fateful day that i was reading more as a source of general information). Things of course became stark and ugly when i saw those two people. I felt as if i was being held by my collar to register the reality as it really was. I lived in a country where such disproportionate growth was the norm.
While the rich got richer and more consumerist, mimicking the west, the poor seemed to get poorer. I could only stand and imagine what must be going through their minds as they saw such vulgar display of wealth and prosperity all around them. With an empty stomach and a leaking roof, i could'nt imagine anyone visiting this haven of consumerism and leaving without a sense of ill treatment and hatred for the others who seemed happy there. They seemed so out of place and lost in this maze and i could feel this incredible chill to the very core of me..
It was a picture that will remain etched in my memory for a long time to come. Life is unfair and for some reason, despite all efforts, i dont see a causality for it. Why are people placed in such diverse circumstances ? It almost seems that despite all the physical laws known to man, there is a certain degree of stochasticity associated with each of our lives. Some end up calling this element of uncertainity as spirituality, "supernatural elements" and God, I however, am content with calling it as purely random chance.
I just happened to have a slightly bigger number on my roll of the dice than what that young man did...
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