THE LIFE ABOVE THE FLYOVERS AND THE LIFE BELOW THE FLYOVERS

“If you believe in living a respectable life,” said, Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, “you believe in self-help which is the best help.”

The words to underline here are ‘Living a respectable life’. Ambedkar himself is the epitome of such a life… Though he is worshiped as a Messiah and hope of the underprivileged and the oppressed people, he never became a man of such prominence and respect because of quotas and doles… He did it on merit, through dreaming and hard work… He did it by self-help.

While it is important to give a hungry man some food, it is more important to ignite in his belly the fire to grow in life. Reservations and doles, which we get to hear from the Political class these days, in my view, will not help the poor and the oppressed people to come out of their condition. In fact, it will only make them remain in that state, fooled, brainwashed and blinded.

When I was small, back home in my native village, the houses had hay roof and mud walls… There were no toilets and electricity… We kids had no footwear or decent clothes… I remember standing endlessly in the ration queues as a little boy, and I remember my parents taking some financial support from the St. Vincent Paul Society’s monthly aid for some time… I remember wearing the ‘used clothes’ of my Bombay cousins… Not because they were rich here in Bombay… Here, they lived even in a more deprived condition compared to us back in our village. Only difference was this: when they had outgrown their clothes, they really remembered us, who did not have a decent set to wear… and we kids wore them with dignity… We stood in the ration queues with dignity… Our parents accepted help from the St. Vincent Paul Society with dignity… But, through all this, we did believe in our dreams… We wanted to come out of our so-called ‘deprived and oppressed’ condition… Yes, we believed in ‘self-help’ more than freebies and doles… We wanted to belong to the ‘deserved’ category; and not to a ‘reserved’ category…

Our governments can do for us only so much. I believe in the individual’s responsibility to the nation more than the nation’s responsibility to the individual. To me, the real empowerment is the self-empowerment… Get up, get out and do it!

Yes, stop begging with no self-respect. Start dreaming, start believing in self-power and self- responsibility… When you rise from your deprived and oppressed state, the nation, too, will…

Yes, my parents do not seek the aid from St. Vincent Paul Society any more… They, now, reach out to those who need that help… We kids do not wear our Bombay cousins’ second-hand clothes anymore… We give ours to those who need them… There are terrace homes and granite floors… The bathrooms, lights, toilets – yes, they are very, very decent.

But, here in Mumbai, even now, we see two classes of fellow-Indians: those who live in the buildings and those who live in the slums… Or, as I heard from a comedian: ‘Those who live above the flyovers and those who live below the flyovers.’

We know, that it’s a familiar scene…a very, very old scene. And, we also know, that it will not pass for a very, very long time to come. But, one thing will surely happen: those kids who live below the flyovers will surely come above it… only if they dream and desire to do so…

It’s a different hunger… The freebies, doles and reservations of the political class will only keep them there – below the flyovers…

Get up, get out and do it… Don’t’ be fooled, brainwashed and blinded.

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Source unknown