Uneven Circumstances

Cam Macfarlane 

Right now, a group of young men sit in a train station, in the midst of homeless people and beggars, civilians of Kolkata ready to board, and various store owners. I think these people of different lifestyles and upbringings somewhat highlight the seemingly uneven distribution of wealth and luck that we have seen during our time in Kolkata. Now sitting with my thoughts to myself, and over an hour to smash out a blog I will reflect on the variational circumstances Kolkata has showed us.

In our group debrief sessions some people have been attempting to answer what I consider an impossible task; to define this wonderful city as genuinely happy, or happy to just see foreigners. Defining a society as happy or not is an unachievable task I believe, for that reason I will acknowledge both the good and the bad that I have seen.

The negatives, being the source of the only discomfort I have felt so far on this trip, are frankly crippling at times. When I was able to see some of the Jungle Crows' locality as they called it, as well as being humbled I was flabbergasted by the size and conditions of their houses (of which I won't describe). Upon visiting Brooklyn, my expectations were met and exceeded to a worse extent than I could have imagined unfortunately. Described by many as a "post-apocalyptic" area, we saw run-down, crumbling buildings colonised by small weeds and blanketed in a black grimy layer of silt. For quite some time I admit I was happy, the smiles and giggles of the children were contagious. But once I stepped outside my bubble, outside of my perspective refracted by a privileged upbringing, I realised that what originally struck me as another walk through Kolkata was these people's reality. Discombobulated, I spent the rest of my day disgusted that I could so easily take such little things for granted. For example, a clean area to go home to at the end of the day ("clean" being not covered in mud/silt), a complete 4 walls and a roof, clean water coming out of a tap, and so on. 

However, what I see as a light that offers something to live for in this dark world for some, is the positive end of this spectrum of life. In the Jungle Crows' locality, I was thrilled to be able to play cricket with some school children. The joy I felt, as well as the children I can assume, cannot be matched by words. In Brooklyn, aside from the happy children I observed a sensational sense of community; babies and grandparents seemed to have a symbiotic relationship. The babies with survival as their main concern in their innocent lives, the grandparents being nurturing and loving and kind. Amongst the filthy roads and paths, pungent smells, overwhelming smog and absence of wealth and luck for that matter, are smiles. If you smile, they smile back. I think being happy begins with a decision that anyone can make.