Trust Issues.
Last week I wrote about neighborhood, this week on Monday I
got a call from someone who is staying below our house in our LIG flat in
Delhi. He sent me multiple snaps of seepage and telling me that my balcony is
flooded and that is the reason for the seepage. The last time I went was in
2018 after baba’s passing away – to do shradh. Now Delhi (where I have
lived for few years) is not a place where you can trust anyone beyond your
inner circle. Close friends whom you know. While everybody will call you beta
as in your son but you know that it’s just a 4 letter word. So, when another neighbor called saying that he will get the keys and see what can be done. All
the thoughts which came to my mind was – Will he really do it? Is it safe? If
something breaks or he misuses the house etc. But he got everything done, of
course – it required an effort, getting someone, supervise it and get it
cleaned etc. Heart in heart I still worry if everything is safe.
But it set me thinking, typically why was my first reaction negative
/ distrust. The answer of course all my years of struggle / fights / arguments
with auto - rickshaw, vegetable vendors and people whom I met during my daily
life in Delhi. And that is how a society leaves its imprint on an individual
and from individual to family and friends and so on some forth. We live our
life under it’s influence as they become deep rooted in us.
I had stayed away from these people who were there to give
company to baba when he was there alone even if though it was an
occasional hello, or a HOLI get together. While I never showed any disrespect
to them – I never cared for them as well. I guess now I can feel a sense of
gratitude towards them not only for helping me out but being there for baba.
Take that chance.
2 most talked about books of 2020
The Burning: By Megha Majumdar & Djinn Patrol on the purple line: By Deepa Anappra
Common themes: Both have similar mileu – about lives of people living in slums
/ shanties. The difficulty they go thru, their aspirations and issues. The
divide & the relationship between them and the rich, how they live on each
other or survive because of each other or feed on each other. It can be looked
at many way’s but this is a unique characteristic of India.
Maids are the biggest support system of homes of corporate
India. The relationship is very symbiotic – trust & respect is crucial for
both parties. Like a team member or fellow colleague or boss – it either clicks
or it doesn’t.
Both also have children as key protagonists, in fact in Djinn
Patrol the story is about kids
The Burning is starker, Jivan a Muslim living in a small shanty town in Kolkata
is arrested for posting a negative message about the govt. She gets implicated
in a terrorist activity and goes to jail. There is a parallel story of her PT
sir in the schools she goes to and a hijra (eunuch) whom she teaches called Lovely.
While PT sir aspires to be a politician, Lovely aspires to be an actress.
Whether they succeed is something one has to read to find out but to achieve
their dreams they have to turn a blind eye to their heart and conscience. And Jivan
becomes the collateral damage.
DjinnPatrol is more fun. Especially because – the book is written as a
voice of a nine-year-old boy Jai. It is literally what is going on in his mind
and in his language – like he calls the people living in apartments as hi-fi
people. The story is all about children who start disappearing in a busti in
Delhi (slum) and how is investigating mind tries to solve the mystery. You have
to read it to find out if he can.
We all have our reasons to read books. While some books will
be universally liked like Dan Browns Da Vince Code / Jeffrey Archer books –
because they take you to a different world. You fly with their imagination and
get involved in their stories and plots and sub plots. It’s a different world
you enter through these pages and leave behind your present state / environment
/ things around you. It’s your escape.
Both these books are too real, especially reading them
sitting in India where last week in Bangalore a house was ransacked because someone
from that house had posted in Facebook comments which effected the sentiment of
a religious community. 2 people killed, 15 injured, multiple arrested and army
had to do a flag march to calm down situation. With rains lashing Mumbai, where
I stay for work – I can visualise how life would be for those sleeping on roadside
in cubicles made of card board boxes, tin sheds, tarpaulins.
