Rains, Slums & Politicians

Yet another day of overcast sky and intermittant rains, the sun has been hidden for 4 days. Being in Chennai, used to cribbing about heat, today I really wished the sun would come out atleast for a few minutes. But the possibilities seem bleak.

With four days of continuos rains, you have this damp feeling all over the place....this being on the 4th floor in the apartment. The basement parking lot and the courtyard of my apartment is already under water. Now when i feel so fed up of the rains, staying in the 4th floor of an apartment, i wonder how our fellow citizens staying in the slums would be managing.

In Chennai, majority of the areas have a slum, be it an upmarket, posh residential area or the out skirts & suburbs. With thatched roofs and line houses and a big family it must be a nightmare staying in one of those shelters. With leaking roofs and rising water levels it is difficult to imagine life that way...

Some how it seems unfair for them. In the last four days, all the offices in Chennai had atleast one day of holiday.... but I am impressed by my maid (almost all of them stay in slums) who comes early in the morning to distribute milk and then do the household chores in different places. Now this for a lady who stays in a slum, of course with a husband who is an alcoholic....

She was pouring out her woes this morning about having to manage this season......

Now who is responsible for their well being??? Our democratically elected peoples representatives, the Politicians.....

Some times I am absolutely at a loss to understand this genre of people, atleast most of them (i guess every Indian is)......once the rains come, they wait for different areas to be sufficiently flooded and then venture out in the rain with boots and rain coats with a host of media people to inspect the amount of water logging and give instructions........and watch out, they actually venture out when it is raining.....

And how about the preventive measures they could have taken, all of them settle in with some of the drainages being cleared before the start of the season....

For the thousands of slum dwellers in the city, it hardly makes any difference.......this portion of their life story is repeated every year........With water all around them.......i am sure it dampens their spirits......

Obed