Mumbai, the World’s Attic (or, more succinctly, Why I Came Here)

I half jokingly told some friends that I thought living in Manhattan for two weeks before coming to Mumbai would be a great way to prepare psychologically for this pushy, aggressive rat race of a city becomes. But here I'm given mostly compassion and humanity by most along with a nagging reminder of how much of the world lives, surviving on a day to day basis.

It is a lot to think about that I can walk into a café and buy a cup of coffee for about a dollar or a beer for four dollars, when many families would live on that amount in a day. I could have bought a 3-month supply of powdered milk for an 18-year-old and his one-year-old sister standing outside, as he'd asked me –that happened on Sunday. But a lot of people are asking me for things, and I can't do it all! Regardless, these things have brought me to realise that I was right in making my decision to come here to work.

William Easterly, former World Bank employee who openly condemns the UN and World Bank in The White Man’s Burden, makes the analogy that the poor are living in the world’s attic: no one wants to think about cleaning or taking care of the attic because it’s not seen and not important to think about. It’s not even considered a priority. So using this analogy as a contrast, perhaps Manhattan is like the parlour where people put their best furniture and finest china for the guests to admire. If NYC is kind of a symbol of having made it, what is Mumbai? A subtle shade of post-colonialism?

If you haven’t guessed yet, this entry is about why I came here. When I said I was moving here last year the reaction often was, “I don’t get it,” or “Why would you do that?” and “Your work's going to be just a drop in the bucket!” A few Swedish friends think I'm actually a trust fund baby. Another friend's father thinks I'm working under cover as a secret agent (seriously!). Some merely feel I am an adventurous person for taking this job…but for those who did not understand why, I hope this entry offers another perspective. Thinking back at all the questions I got, I didn’t really want to try to explain why I was coming here. It seemed pretty futile to explain the concept.

My first commute on the train was today, and I knew it was going to have an impact because I’d heard that what you see can be overwhelming (given I am an ignorant Western newbie here). What I did experience wasn’t the worst thing, but it scared the hell out of me because I was reminded that living life on this planet for so many people is more of a purgatory and struggle for survival than something to be enjoyed. On the train I was reminded that people’s homes, small concrete and corrugated aluminum shacks that go on for miles and miles and miles alongside the railroad tracks, are surrounded by garbage, rats, open sewage. My perspective of "normal" is changing quite a bit, even after only two weeks.

But seeing such things scared me at first because it forces me to think about the meaning and purpose of life if it's so difficult for so many, while some of us get all the advantages of modern Western life. There I am, on the train in to work, reading a book and listening to my iPod while others can barely afford the 4 Rp (10 cent) ticket to get into the city. I'm thinking, how could it get to be this bad? But also, I have to wonder why I was spared from living such a life. My supervisor’s husband and I were talking about this at their dinner table and he said that we had, perhaps, stumbled upon the solution: that we need to start the trend in India to get girls to want to live life like me: as unmarried, childless 33-year-olds….because the city is busting at the seams with people. Okay, yes, that's an ignorant Western "solution" but he was joking.

But to finish, the reason I am actually here is because education and grassroots social change are two things I strongly believe in. I don’t really feel the same way about making a lot of money for myself (another post on this later, and no I am NOT a trust fund baby). I really feel strongly that education (the mind) is the only thing that cannot be claimed, even if everything else material has vanished. Here I will be working with kids who are all born and raised in the slum communities of Mumbai, who want to improve their lives and the condition of their communities. I will be working regularly with 30 kids, all of whom are working to change people’s habits and perspectives. The impact of education on these lives, which is not only essential but also powerful, will create social change in a community that desperately needs it. Teaching in Sweden or the U.S. was not rewarding in the same way because the impact I will make here is much greater. For that reason, I am going to try to do this for at least a year and see how it goes.

Next posting will not be so solemn, I promise!

NB: here are photos from the library outing we took yesterday. The little social activists were research on topics such as waste disposal, noise pollution, destruction of mangroves and human rights in India. Here the bottom is a pic of Churchgate Station after my very first solo train ride in to the city.