Snap Out of It

The day started earlier than usual, eager with excitement to meet Aaron’s wife at the clinic. Having no previous knowledge of Indian medicine, we were fascinated to learn about Ayurveda medicine. After learning about how their training programs benefited women and provided them with a source of income which they can earn from home, we sat down for lunch, at Sai Punjabi Rasoi, where we ate freshly baked naan with paneer. With our stomachs filled, we rode the bus down to the community. When we arrived, we walked to our interview with a local community member.

We entered through a door, tucked between brightly, coloured, narrow houses. Inside we sat down on blankets that were carefully laid out by her. She was Ganga. A 35 year old Indian woman who dressed brightly in traditional clothing. Sarah began questioning her with the help of Raksha, our leader and translator. One thing that I noticed was the way she filtered the water of her household; a method she learned from her mother. The cloth was put over the tap to absorb all the dirt and out came “filtered” water. A makeshift solution that was a well known tradition. Aside from all this, what stood out to me the most was the fact that in that one small, humid space housed a family of 10, including Ganga. Stacks of urns were placed throughout the house and bundles of clothing lay scattered.

After returning to the temple, we took a tour of the surrounding area; the Zuari Nagar factory, where most of the migrants worked unskilled jobs for daily pay. It has served as a place of income for generations of migrants and perhaps many more. We then walked around the community. And as i walked, looking at the colourful houses and children playing, i realized that this wasn’t a place of struggle but a place where happiness and ease of life flourished. Neighbours visited each other freely, kids played without a sense of care and women chatted. Like a flower growing in the mud, this happiness was found in a place where men and women defecated around piles of garbage. The images of the slums were already familiar to us but the reality was not. Once our feet hit the gravel and we absorbed the smells of the community, we realized that this was something completely foreign to us.