In the last post I talked about slums and high rises running together in Mumbai.

This post is kind of an extension to that but just with the totally awesome views of
an awesome Mumbai girl. so, people give a clap for Nikita Gupta. She is an
awesome navi mumbai girl who speaks way too much for her own good. Though
she pretty much destroyed my previous post, I being I am still going to post her
views so as to get you all good people a clear picture about what the field report
is.

Now it is Nikita talking through my words.

“So, let's get a few things clear first. Mumbai is like no other city in India and it is
the best, no other city has the magic that this city has. Now talking about slums, I
personally think that the slums in Mumbai are a sham. The reason people live in
these slums is because they are poor right? but guess what they are not. Yet they
live there. So, why do they do it? One primary reason could be because they don't
want to pay the bills. I am not saying that all the people are fake and a sham, there
are really poor people too who actually cant afford a real house but due to the
others, the real poor people are shunned. Also another reason could be their
business… begging! Yes, they have made begging a business which is another
reason that now we think twice before giving any money to the poor because we
have seen slum dog millionaire. Also, for the people who say that the movie is an
exaggeration or simply not true, remember that there is no smoke without the fire.

Now coming to the redevelopment thing you talked about, you were somewhat
wrong there. The Bombay Municipal Corporation comes up with redevelopment
plans for the the poor all the time and the BMC gives the slum dwellers a lot of
facilities and options. It's just that these people refuse to move or cooperate with
the BMC. They don't want things to change and it's this unwillingness which
causes all the problems. For instance, there were times when BMC made societies
for slum dwellers and gave each family a house but a few weeks later it was
noticed that the people reconstructed the slums only to give the houses on rent and
just have an extra source of income then.

Bombay is very special place and makes this place so special is it has people from
all religions, states and all other kind of places. These people need to work and
sometimes they end up finding their place in a slum. So, life is all perspective and
you might think that they don't have basic necessities but truth being told they have
all they need to survive. For example electricity, just because they don't get
electricity the same way we do, doesn't mean they don't have electricity. The word
'Jugaad' fits here perfectly. Now for us living in a society with proper resources is
the way of life but from their perspective, living in slums with proper resources
acquired through improper means is the way of life they want. They are there by
choice and not because the society isolated them or the city ignored them. Because
trust me Mumbai is a city where the lines between rich are poor blur a very good
instance is public transport as mentioned in the previous post.

Believe me when i say this, nobody in this city is ever isolated. It doesn't matter to
people whether you are a millionaire or a slum dweller, they will hep you in wither
of the case with the same jest. So, that is my opinion(rant really).

PS. I am not saying that it is JUST a sham, I am just trying to show everyone the
other side of the same coin that exists.

That's is what Nikita thinks, if you ever want to ask her about something feel free to
contact her at,

Nikki08gupta@gmail.com

In the end I would really just like to say thanks to her, for helping me out and
giving her time. You rock Nikita.