What people refer to as the city of dreams, I would also want to give it a title of the city of extremes. On one hand, where you have the glitter and glamour associated with the Bollywood industry and the rich businessmen, on the other hand, you can find the famous slums of Bombay, where every morning people get up hoping that the day would turn out to be a life changer.
Most, who fall on the other side of the table, by the time the sun sets, return home still wanting that one magical day in their lives which they dream about every night the moment they hit their beds.
They feel disappointed and even curse the one and only for giving them the life, but wake up every morning hoping and believing that their time would come. In this entire cycle of hope and despair that they tend to go through each day, they are faced with numerous life threatening challenges.
Only few are able to successfully come out of the vicious circle that they tend to find themselves the moment they are born. Rest are left to go through the excruciating pain each day, which they all start referring to as life.
Of the majority, some chose to find renunciation in the world of dreaded dreams, which all colloquially refer to as the underworld. The world which is often showcased in our movies has its own set of rules and regulations.
Often the world provides the much needed relief to the psyche of our youth with no jobs, but comes along with its own set of deadly consequences. Youth get easily attracted to the glitter which tends to take them into a different zone altogether where they start to feel that they have made it big.
With the real estate offering hafta and the rich and famous having no choice but to pay them hefty amounts for their own security, the underworld blossoms big time. As a result, the gangs go on a hiring spree looking for impoverished candidates who are frustrated and are trying to find a means of getting away from their day to day lives.
To increase their clout, the recruitment is not just limited to one specific gang. As time passes by, the once impoverished youth become most wanted criminals. Some of them end up getting encountered by the specialists in their field and only a few who are really lucky go on to become dons, who then act as role models for the impoverished lot who aspire to become just like them when they grow up.
If you are wondering, how these gangs tend to gain sympathy from the have-not in our society, it is because the leader of the gang tend to nurture them with all kind of materialistic support for both them and their families in need. They truly become messiah for the perpetually needy lot.
All the above brings us to significant questions, “What if the youth was not impoverished? What if the youth had decent white collar jobs? What if their families were well fed? What if the governance was good? Won’t they be just like us who do our regular jobs and try to live our lives in a peaceful manner?”
If the answer to the above is yes, then who is it who should be blamed for the scheme of things that take place in their lives. Is it the politicians, is it the bureaucrats, is it the aam aadmi?
Or more than wondering about who is responsible, why not think about who can make things better? Is it our politicians, is it the bureaucrats, or the aam aadmi? Possibly each one of them need to work together.
It is always said, “where there is a will, there is a way”. I just wonder where the will in this case will come from and will that will result in affirmative actions aimed at rectifying the scenario.
Source for Image: http://www.mumbai-metro.com/category/construction-and-technology