From the balcony on the top floor of the apartment complex, I see the shanties below, rows and rows of haphazardly constructed dwellings.
On some evenings, when I stand outside, I see them huddled together in small groups, their weary yet cheerful faces lit by the dim incandescent bulbs and the small fires they make, having animated conversations, punctuated with laughter. There are games of carrom, and sometimes, I think, impromptu concerts too, since I hear loud singing. On weekends, there are cricket games, and sometimes, feasts are organised too, large vessels are brought out into the open area, and everyone joins in the cooking.
One day, as I stood watching them, my neighbour walked out onto his balcony. We smiled at each other. At least, I think it was my neighbour and not a visitor, since I’d not seen him earlier, in 3-4 months spent in the apartment. And that set me thinking on communities, and how, as we move from place to place on account of job and lifestyle changes, as our standards of living improve, as we climb higher in life, we tend to move away from shared experiences and communities, and start having transaction based relationships, established when a need arises.
It also made me think about this in the context of blogging, of how we start off as small communities, where almost everyone knows each other, then we grow and move on, and lose touch, not just with each other, but also where we started out from, and how.
The inhabitants of the shanties below are auto drivers, labourers, maids, dhobis, the people who we depend on to keep the clockwork of our life running smoothly, the people who we pay anything from a few rupees to a few thousands of rupees, sometimes grudgingly, and expect to make a life out of. And sometimes, i wonder, in the community spirit that they manage to develop and maintain, if they succeed in making a better life, if not a better living standard.
until next time, altitudes and attitudes
beautiful post…
I hardly know who lives in my building, I sometimes see the other occupants in the elevator, we both smile and move on..
Succinct.
Wistful, these parallels.
That’s a great way of putting it. Luckily in the blogging case, I’ve made offline friends and kept in touch with them even when we moved away from the blog world. I guess social networking is the new buzzword.
The higher we go, the farther we become. From one another, and perhaps ourselves too !
Loved this post !
loved this post…i used to see my maid, enjoying every festival, every occasion with a zest that was contagious…we have much to learn from them too…
and i happen to think you are brilliant…come and collect the award which says so..:)
Nice post Manu. I really don’t know if the problem lies with our jobs and lifestyles or with just us! How many of us would really put in the time and effort to go and meet our neighbours! I’m sure I wouldn’t want people eating into my reading time or movie watching time or ‘just-having-mindless-conversations-with-my-husband’ time.
I guess like everything else….its just about the choices we make.
But then again I do tend to miss the festive fun at times! 🙂
– Uma
Beautifully written, Manu. It is our ( perceived ) need of ‘ personal space ‘ that makes us build walls around us.
we have more to lose, so we hoard more perhaps. and personal zones, become just that – individual, not collective.
very nice post
I like the term “transaction based relationships”
So true!!
Getting serious hmmm! very successful in touching the true chords of life. especially things tend to change after marriage, ppl think you are busy cause you r newly married and this unnecessary and unintentional initiative results in useless and wasteful distances. i am experiencing this already at such a young age. Guess, there is a long way to go and eternal facts to face
attitudes and altitudes!
I was thinking of posting this on my blog. Don’t take it as a spam. not very related but this thought came up again when I read this post.
While I was growing up, I had relatives who struggled for the ends to meet but gave birth to children just because they wanted them and said,’there will be a way out’. I saw life a little beyond that but I have started to think which is better.Post marriage, the dream of a house has grown big and bigger even when I know I will spend the next 15 to 20 years paying EMIs and though I love children, I am not confident of bringing even one child to this world.