Mumbai in the pre-dawn is quieter, especially down by the water near the Gateway to India. Nice area.Barefooted women with big straw brooms are sweeping the streets. The one-legged guy with a makeshift wheelchair is washing himself in the gutter and hoping to make a few rupees shining shoes today.
Around the corner you almost step on a couple of women covered in a dirty blanket, sleeping on the pavement using the curb as a pillow. A baby cries — a small young baby. She lays naked, out from the cover of the blankets, cold in the early morning dampness. The mother sleeps.
The sliver of sun slices through the mist and smog over the Arabian Sea, slowly bringing life to this city and as it does, miles and miles of grey, black slums are illuminated.
As we drive through the city toward our distribution these slums are juxtaposed beside nice residences. At a stop sign a pretty young girl, maybe ten years old, leads an older blind man, presumably her dad, into the waiting traffic pleading with her eyes for money. A young man carries another very thin frail dying man on his back asking for the same.
One foot in front of the other must be the only way to survive another day. Didn’t give the pretty young girl or young man any money. Wish we did.
We shed some tears and get about helping one child at a time.
Doug MacDougald,
for the SCAW 2007 Mumbai Travelling Team
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