The street in front of Deepa's "home" on a wet day and below on a drier day.
Indian cities are crazy places and Chennai is the 4th largest ctiy in India. It can be described in one word - constant. Constant people, constant traffic, constant shock, constant death, constant life, constant honking, constant poverty, constant noise, constant struggle. It goes on and on and it never stops. It's a country teeming with over a billion people and it's crazy! Crazy how different our lives are from theirs, crazy how unfair life is, crazy how a country can function like this, crazy that this is acceptable. Just plain crazy! That's the only way to describe it.
There're many reasons why we like this crazy country, don't get us wrong. It's an amazing place, we just struggle with trying to understand things like this for instance. There's a family that lives on a chunk of pavement across from the guesthouse we were staying at. The husband has a job as an auto rickshaw driver yet they still live on the street. Deepa, the wife, is a lovely lady of about 23 or so. They have two kids. A one and a half year old and a baby. When we were there it was raining heavily and the street in front of their "home" was flooded with filthy, polluted water. One night we were on our rooftop and we looked down and saw the one and a half year old toddle through the water, which was up to his waist, and go across the street. It's crazy. These people live in filth, at the mercy of the elements and die on the same corner they were born on. Deepa's whole family lives on the street from what we can make out; aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, mom, dad and cousins. The crazy thing is they're just one family out of millions living the same life.
Kim and i were constanty approached by people wanting something from us whether it was a cup of chai, some biscuits, money, a bag of rice, clothes etc. It goes on and on. It's soooooooo hard because you can't help everyone and even the people we do help we aren't helping, i mean really helping, in the long run. The problem is just too huge. We bought Deepa's kids some new clothes and we bought them some fruit. We also bought the baby a toy truck so he'd have something to play with while sitting on the street corner. They're the one family that never asked us for anything and, despite their situation, they were always smiling and saying hello.
It wasn't all poverty and despair in big city India however. There's a middle class and a really wealthy portion of the population as well. It's a crazy juxtaposition that's for sure. For example we went and saw the movie 2012 while we were there and it was playing in a super plush theatre, nicer than any we know of in Vancouver or Sydney. Another night Kim and i went out on a date to a fancy tapas bar where we drank $10 martinis and ate a lovely meal. It was a crazy feeling sitting in that restaurant, indulging ourselves and knowing what misery awaited us outside. We struggled with that one for a long time. We could have fed many families with the money our bill came to.
We're not in Chennai anymore but it certainly made an impression on us and gave us a lot think about. I don't think either of us will ever forget Deepa and her family. We'll always remember the warmth and the smiles they shared with us and they'll serve as just one more reminder of how lucky we are. How lucky we all are.
We're not in Chennai anymore but it certainly made an impression on us and gave us a lot think about. I don't think either of us will ever forget Deepa and her family. We'll always remember the warmth and the smiles they shared with us and they'll serve as just one more reminder of how lucky we are. How lucky we all are.
