Pedalling Progress...

A typical scene in suburban Mumbai, captured by my blogger friend Magiceye. A young girl, possibly,  temporarily the head of a family, taking over the childcare, shopping and household work, lugging kerosene cans to the Ration shop, while her parents, are off to work, possibly at a new construction site.

Rampant construction in Mumbai has resulted in bringing in cheap labour from the rural areas, and entire families have moved. In the meanwhile, in rural areas near Satara, in Maharashtra, and some places in Bihar, young girls who were pressed for time attending rural schools miles away while doing their household duties, are being given free bicycles under some schemes and encouraged to attend school. 

You win some. You lose sum.  And some simply bypass a childhood, wistfully watching, what could have been .....

Life is

about choosing

between a fourth wall

and

a ceiling,

or

a crying baby sibling

and making chapati dough,

while your parents work overtime

at a posh

contsruction project.

Life is about

a childhood

accelerated into puberty,

as she stays home

to cook,

clean,

wash clothes,

queue up for kerosene,

ignore fights,

and look after

her brother,

the star member.

While her girlfriends

in her village

now get free cycles

to attend the school

5 kilometres away,

she trudges by,

school-less,

carrying the young brother

through the potholes of life

so one day,

he too can cycle by

like this,

in style....

Cycle of Time

A common sight seen now, in the Mumbai suburbs. Cycles have always been around, but not so much in Mumbai. More so, in my childhood, in Pune. Then, almost everyone learned to cycle, and it was the preferred mode of transport for young folks. Today, in Mumbai, you can see many folks who cannot cycle, but are experts at zooming on motorized  2-wheelers.....  

Courier fellows like this one are often seen, all wrapped up in today's technology, multitasking as it were, sometimes confidently driving on the wrong side of the road.

  One such capture by my friend Magiceye, as part of his 365 Project Series.

 

A better road,
a similar bike,
a fellow
with a  pastel
full-sleeved shirt
and
pants with cuffs at the ankles
fastened with
"cycle pins"
at the shins
pedals to college,
avoiding
an occasional passing
snub nosed Fiat,
his
college books
on the carrier seat,
and no phones,
but messages from the parents,
to return home in time,
study,
avoid bad company etc,
ringing in the ears.....

Today roads are worse,
fellows with
pink purple tees
and jeans and pants
go on similar bikes,
working as part time
courier boys,
pedalling on the wrong side
tangling with huge Hondas,
cell phones to their ears,
and
messages from folks saying,
"Ate waqt, ek dazan anda leke aa.....".....

The only thing unchanged
is the Cycle of Time.....