Chit Chat and Chai.
You are most welcome, Mell 😊
Yes, that is very expensive rent indeed. Question of demand & supply I guess. India surely is a land of extremes.
Basically, with the slums its like this. Any piece of land, generally government land, where somebody decides to put up a slum becomes the owner. The price I was referring to is of course for a slum in a big colony of slums coz those are difficult for the govt. to tear down. Unity is strength right? 😊 A lot of slums are also owned by slumlords under whose supervision these shanties came up. But generally the owner is whoever lives there & built the slum in the first place.
Now I am sure you are wondering how & why these slums are allowed to stay put on govt / public land? Well, politics is the answer. You see, the slum dwellers are all registered voters & they will vote for whoever does not pull down their homes. And their numbers are big enough to make a serious difference. So there you have it.
In India, only the educated or people with their own businesses have any real shot at making good money. My only grouse is that the hardest workers here barely make enough to feed their family, forget educating or housing them properly.
Reply to this Now I am sure you are wondering how & why these slums are allowed to stay put on govt / public land?
Well, people have to live someplace. If the government wont let the poor live on vacant land, then they would have to provide someplace else for them to live. There would be terrible riots if so many people had no place to live.
....the hardest workers here barely make enough to feed their family,....
I heard that some of them get as little as the equivalent of 70 Cents US per day.
Reply to this "I heard that some of them get as little as the equivalent of 70 Cents US per day."
Yes thats right Mell. Imagine working in the summer heat of Mumbai for that kind of paycheck. Combination of a huge population & most of it being uneducated. Grossly unfair all the same.
Reply to this What types of jobs do the people who get 70 Cents per day do?
Reply to this Its mostly in the unorganised labour sector in the rural areas in agriculture or in backward areas with practically no employment opportunities. Most of these people are landless agricultural labourers. Lots of them are forced to commit suicide every year, unable to bear the burden of a failed crop & a mounting debt burden. Shameful really that we cant provide a decnt life to the very men who put food on our table.
Theres this beautiful movie that came out a few years back called Swades (one of Shah Rukh Khans best movies in my opinion) which shows life in such areas. Very humbling experience even for me, as an Indian who sees such poverty everyday.
Reply to this Yeah, that is appalling. I thought, what I saw in the cities is bad, but the rural parts seem worse. That suicide thing is shocking.
Apparenty, there is enough money in the world, so nobody really needs to do without basic food, education and medical care, but not enough ethics and morals applying to money distribution.
I will watch out for that movie. I see a lot of alternative movies, when I visit Dublin. Hopefully, that will be one that they will show. I watch the movies about human rights abuses, poverty, social ills.... despite wondering if I would be better off preserving my innocence by not looking at things like that, that I can do so little about.
Reply to this I watch the movies about human rights abuses, poverty, social ills.... despite wondering if I would be better off preserving my innocence by not looking at things like that, that I can do so little about.
I know what you mean. After a point, it gets a bit too much to take, as selfish as that may sound. I live in Mumbai & when you see so much poverty everyday at every step, it all seems insurmountable at times. You do your bit but make peace with the fact that you cant help everyone. If you dont de-sensitize, youll probably go insane.
Reply to this You do your bit but make peace with the fact that you cant help everyone. If you dont de-sensitize, youll probably go insane.
Yeah, that is what I do, when I travel in places where there are a lot of poor people.
There is one incident I will always remember about when I was in Mumbai 10 years ago. When I bought things like bags or fruit, I used to always give half of it to the beggars. I was walking along the street and the usual number of beggars had their hands out and kids were tugging on my sleeves. I had a bag of figs which I took out. There were 5 figs in the bag and I handed one each to 2 of the beggars and then shook the rest of them off and walked on. One man with very sad eyes followed me all the way to my hotel with his hand out. He knew I had 3 figs left, because he saw me put them away. I didnt give him one. It wasnt because I needed them more, or I was too mean to give one. It was more that, if I didnt draw the line somewhere definate with doing stuff for people I would go insane. Sounds dramatic, but I felt that the only way to handle all this was to centre myself and make a boundary and believe that whatever I did do means something to somebody and that is what matters. I felt that if I didnt make some cut off point, I would just lose myself in it all, because how can a person look at all that without limits and still have patience with the ones at home in the wealthier countries who dont care, dont want to know, want to bend my ear with why they dont think they should give anything to charity...
Reply to this Yea, you are absolutely right. We all have to find our own ways of dealing with the issue. A lot of times I question myself why I give money to some beggars & at other times I dont. I used to feel guilty about that; still do sometimes. The situation is unfortunate but thats life I guess. If everyone makes small contributions in their own way, hopefully tomorrow would be better.
Reply to this Last May, when I was in Mumbai, I wondered why I didnt see any holy men. There were lots of them on the streets of Mumbai, when I was there 10 years ago. Do you know what happened to them, Jai?
Reply to this Hmmm.......interesting question Mell. You've got me thinking now 😊 umm.....dont really have a precise explanation for that but Mumbai has undergone a real metamorphosis in the last 10 yrs. Might have something to do with that. I guess with the serious lack of space, peace & quiet, Mumbai isnt probably ideal for the holy men to practise their art.
Reply to this Rents mahybe high in India but do you know that of all the commercial districts in the world Colaba, Mumbai has the lowest rents in the world with the recent downturn in the economy. Rents have fallen more in Colaba than anywhere in the world.
Reply to this Didnt know that, Alex. Why do you suppose that is? Colaba's a pretty good area I reckon. Overall I think a lot of companies are shifting northwards to places like BKC, Andheri etc. while having a small presence in South Mumbai.
Reply to this I suppose if the economy has a downturn, they would need to reduce the rents, so people can afford to rent at all, even in busy Colaba. Empty offices dont make money.
Reply to this Thats true Mell. However, I would have expected rentals across South Mumbai to have fallen to the same extent as Colaba. Dunno why Colaba should fall more. In any case, IMO South Mumbai is way too expensive so I guess its ok if it comes down a bit 😉
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