The Lost Slum in the Glory of India

I woke up just like every day, hearing the old lady's yell. I had no idea what it was about today, maybe one of the pickle bottles were missing or perhaps a cat had entered her house. This was not eccentric for our slum. I heard another scream so I went out to see what was going on. I saw all of the people gathered outside their sheds. I asked one of the ladies what the matter was, she told me “There has been a fight over meat, two of the young men were ready to slice each other for the piece that the old lady possessed.” These kinds of fights startled me as a kid but now they were a common sight, silly fights over petty issues. All of these men wore scars on their faces with pride.

According to the people on the other side of the town it was a bright sunny Sunday but for us it was just another day in this dingy hell where no day would pass without a quarrel. My mother was not at home, she worked as a domestic help in several houses .My father died in one such brawl over a loaf of bread and my brother had never seen the face of school, he was instead involved in theft and stole to finance his drug addiction, one tends to fall prey to such habits while living here.

When I insisted on going to school my mother admitted me in a government school close to our slum. I went to school happily with my friend Geeta, after school it was like a ritual to go to the garbage dump, the garbage was just a useless heap for people but it was a treasure for us, you see one man's trash is another man's treasure In our slum being a good rag picker is considered a talent.


Our slum is the definition of unhygienic; it is practically crawling with diseases. It is known to all but little help is offered. I always dreamt that after passing school I will somehow fix the conditions of all the slums in India. Everyone would scoff and say, “Kamala you have lost your wits!” whenever they heard about it. My mother did not support my enthusiasm about the idea either because she thought it would lead to a lot of expenditure, it was just an unrealistic and unfeasible wish.

I quickly finished my homework and went outside to look for Geeta. I found her playing outside with the other children of our slum. We both picked up our thin plastic bags and went to the dump. After searching a lot all we found were two hair clips, a torn shawl, a pair of shoes with a hole and a soggy pack of tomatoes. Not an ideal treasure but good enough nonetheless. Searching for things in a dumpster is rather tiring.

When I returned, I went to Sudha aunty's shed to look for my baby sister. Most of us don't even know each other's name but our helpful neighbor Sudha aunty usually offered to take care of my sister while I was out. I thanked aunty and took my sister back to our shed.

Life continued in its monotonous manner. Geeta and I were at the dumpster searching for something useful. I rather tired and hadn't been able to find anything useful. I was about to head back to the slum when I saw something glittering in the sunlight. I had found a gold chain under a heap of garbage! I couldn't believe my luck! I stared at it for a while wondering whether it was genuine. Later that day I took the chain to a jeweler, he confirmed that it was genuine and was worth a lot of money. I was on cloud nine! After a while I sold the chain and received an amount of money that I had never seen in my life before. I decided to save the money and to keep it a secret because it would put us in danger here. After convincing my mother a lot by telling her that if I got a nice
career it would be good for all of us, I got an admission in a renowned university. I worked hard, studied day and night, gradually I became a politician.

Yes, I had succeeded. I changed everything in the slums; I began with my own. I built houses for people, made food available for everyone mainly the children and adults who were malnourished. I provided them free education and gave them a hygienic environment so that people could lead a disease free life. I couldn't provide them a luxurious life, but I surely gave them the basic necessities. No one recognised them as rag pickers anymore.

Looking at the face of the joyous and happy people, there is nothing that could give me more pleasure than knowing that I had helped them change their lives. I was very proud of myself. It was a wonderful sight to see a totally changed world of the slums which had once been horrendous. I was determined to help all other slums too.

Suddenly I heard my younger sister's shrill cry. Before it was too late I realised that I had been dreaming. Life had been unfair to us all this time and it still was. I didn't find a gold chain in the dump the next day, nor the on days that came after.

My shining dream was lost in the gloomy darkness of reality. My dream was nothing but a dream of dreams. There are no fairy tale endings in the real mortal world. Oh! How I wish it were true! Our Slum was still lost in the glory of India.