Tuesday February 20, 2001

A Sad Reality Check

Arriving in most cities at eleven o'clock in the evening, you would expect to find a few cars and even fewer people occupying the streets. Not the case when we entered Mumbai last night. After a flight from Nagpur, the guys pushed through throngs of eager supporters and onto the team bus for an hour-long journey to our hotel in the heart of Mumbai. To my dismay, I was saddened at what my eyes could see from the coach window. Just out from the airport we drove past one of the biggest slums in Asia. Human beings living on dirt floors covered only by sheets of cloth or panels of tin. These makeshift houses would not even win second prize in the cubby houses the kids at home build to pass their time.

Further inland my heart felt strained as I saw thousands of people, of all shapes, sizes and ages, sleeping on the footpaths. The lucky ones had a blanket, the others just a block of stone to use as a pillow. It was as if these poor people had walked until exhaustion, and when they could finally walk no more, they simply found the nearest piece of vacant footpath and lay down to sleep.

"Probably the saddest image was of a skeleton-thin lady cradling a baby that could not have been more than three months old."

Probably the saddest image was of a skeleton-thin lady cradling a baby that could not have been more than three months old.She was sitting on the side of a busy main road. Just sitting and starting into space. As I am the father of nearly three children, it was so hard to fathom the existence of this distressed mother. The expression on the mother's face was one of total hopelessness. She just sat warming her child as the scrawny, hungry dogs tip-toed their way around the masses of homeless people looking for a feed of their own.

Here we were on the way to our five-star hotel, while other humans, with little else but the shirt on their back lay destitute in the middle of no-where. At midnight, there were gatherings of young children sitting around like teenagers at a local hangout. The difference was that these groups of kids could only have been five or six years old. They seemed happy enough, but it just didn't seem right.

They say the crime rate in Mumbai is not that high and I am glad because I can't imagine what could happen to these children or these homeless souls if the atmosphere was more intense. Lying in my room, tucked up comfortably in my hotel bed, I almost felt guilty after witnessing the streets of Mumbai. Life is quickly shuffled into sharp perspective when you witness these unfamiliar scenes.

From Mumbai

JL

You can also read:

Tuesday February 19, 2001: Invaluable exposure
Monday February 18, 2001: A tough day in the field - Day 2 Vs India A
Sunday February 17, 2001: Kaspa or Kimbo?
Tuesday February 13, 2001: Pre-tour preparations
Sunday February 14, 2001: Getting the run-down
Tuesday February 11, 2001: Leaving Home