This is the first book of three,which I will read and which will inform my research art project.
This author is a journalist whose main focus of her research has been the state of poverty in Mumbai,actually in the city of Annawadi...
Prologue:between roses...This story which is true,begins with Abdul, a boy of 16 and sole breadwinner of the family of 11,who makes his living buy buying and selling trash.His father is sickly and as the police are on their way to arrest the boy and his father for a crime of burning "the one legged lady"the boy has to hide and the father goes to prison in his place.The prologue describes the slum with great visuals and discusses the politics and hierarchy of the slum."so much filth into the air it turned his snot black"(page xiii)"Inside was carbon black,frantic with rats..."..Empty water and whisky bottles,mildewed newspapers,used tampons, applicators,wadded aluminum foil......"p.xiii.3,000 people were packed into this slums with some 355 huts,squatting on the airport's land and the international terminal was separated from the slum by a row of palm trees.5 extravagant hotels were there. This sums it up "Everything around us is roses"....and "we are the shit in between"p. xiii.8,000 tons of garbage daily gave many inhabitants of this slum an income from empty bottles of water and beer..."Each evening,they returned down the slum road with gummy sacks of garbage on their backs....."Abdul was a above these scavengers in this hierarchy of waste business and his income came from appraising what they found and selling it in bulk to the recycling plants.He had been sorting garbage since he was 6.sorting trash to sell.
Part one: undercitizens
No comments:
Post a Comment