Saturday, April 2

Saturday, April 2

We have just been dropped off at our hotel from a brief tour of the dobi wallas area and the of the Dharavi slum. The dobi wallas area is a huge area where laundry from all over Mumbai comes to have it washed by hand by the dobi wallas. These people work hard for 356 days a year washing clothes by hand. Each garment is tagged and sorted by color then washed and then returned to the proper "clothes basket". There were hundreds of these little cubes that are rented out to the dobi wallas.

The tour of the Dharavi slum was for me the least enjoyable part of the trip. Least enjoyable from the point of view that it was like walking through a landfill, a hazardous waste dump, a toxic waste area, and an industrial area all rolled into one. This was the first part of the tour. The slum has actually been turned into a huge money making enterprise by performing the recycling of plastic, aluminum, five gallon paints cans, large metal cooking oil containers, just to name a few. Each of these are performed in separate areas and provide needed work for the residents of the slum. The working conditions by Western standards would be grounds to have each of these operations shut down. Ill lit work areas, poor ventilation, cramped and unsafe working conditions were the norm at each recycling activity we were shown. Because today has been declared a national holiday as the India cricket team made it to the final none of these activities were in operation or were in limited operation. Just as well. Having said all of that the workers at each facility were the typical friendly smiling Indian we've encountered everywhere.

We also visited the residential arena. Many of the people how work in the slum also live in the slum. A typical living space would be ten feet by 20 feet and a family of five or more would live there. The residential area we visited also would not be acceptable by Western standards. They have electricity but do not have bathroom or bathing inside their homes. The home is really a small 10' x 15' area where perhaps a family of five would live. A common water faucet is shared and on for three hours a day. And having said all that the residents seemed happy and well taken care of. The conditions reeked of poverty but the people who live in the slum considered middle class (according to our tour guide). I personally wouldn't consider anyone I saw in the slum today middle class. Because it is so expensive to live in Mumbai no one who lives here is considered poor. I guess things are relative.

I was going to send this out earlier today but I decided to wait until I knew the outcome of the World Cricket Cup Championship. Well this certainly means nothing to everyone who is on my list but India has won and the residents of Mumbai and no doubt the rest of India are going crazy. It's been 28 years since they won the last championship and they are really happy. Once again, Mother India has provided us another magic moment.