I am silenced. If you know me, but at all, very few things have this effect on me. I don't know how to react to what I just saw. It is uplifting, saddening, humbling and deeply thought provoking all at the same time.
It's about a couple of kids. Remember childhood? How it was, to be kids? Endless fights with siblings about things which became unimportant somewhere between the hair pulling and the scratching, waiting for that recess period which never seemed to arrive, starting the day with a clean uniform, hair in place, all oiled and in pig tails, ending the day with dusty shoes, tiny stones inside them after all the boisterous sports, not one hair strand in place as the other kids got hold of you in kabaddi as you made it your life goal to touch that line, that victory giving you a happiness that no monetary/professional gain has given you, hating to go back home because home meant homework amongst other irksome things?
These kids, they hate going home too. Not because home means the end of fun and games, not because home means dad hogging TV to watch the 8:30PM news, not because home means mom's incessant calls that its dinner time. The kids hate going home because home means the red light district of Calcutta.
These are kids, born into brothels, and for no obvious fault/choice of theirs, either steadily reaching the age to join the family "line" or becoming pimps. The boys have no respect for women as they grow up to be young men, the girls swear without batting an eye lid, death is no shock and life is merely another day spent in a visibly toxic environment.
In the midst of what was a sick feeling in my tummy for 60 minutes, I noticed that these kids are actually terribly optimistic. They love their mothers, they know they work very hard to make a living, they respect their mothers, they try to love the fathers (ones that cared/needed to stick around) and dream big about their future.
They don't start their day complaining about the overflowing sewage, nor are they mad at their mothers for hitting them, much less complain about traffic from inside a high-end German car on an all American freeway or cringe because the guy in front cut the line at the airport as you ignore the 2 screaming kids and all that luggage in his hand.
Identify with this, my dear reader? If so, I needn't say more. My work here, is truly done.
1 comment:
Yes, Rash...this is really a cringe worthy fact of life. All these stories leave me terrified that my children will be living in this scary world where children are not treated as gods but as playthings. We are lucky to be born to into a responsible, hardworking and caring families which go back generations. All we can hope now is that we do the same for our children and hopefully pray to god that he gives us a chance to do something good for 'The Children of a Lesser God'.
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