January 2014: They fall through the cracks

Multi-storied residential towers coming up. Intelligent homes, infinity pools, marble lobbies. Residences as luxurious as five-star hotels.

Building sites teeming with migrant workers. Labour camps built out of corrugated metal tiles and tarpaulin sheets, held up with coir ropes, and a prayer. Half naked men straining their muscles, emaciated women carrying loads heavier than their weight.

Glitzy hoardings branding tomorrow’s project. Next to it, caution messages, reflecting the reality of today.

In that nowhere land between fantasy and reality, a generation grows up. Ignorant, illiterate, un-informed. Their parents  sweat to give shape to our dreams. They fall through the cracks.

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This picture was taken at the construction site of an upmarket high-rise coming up near our place in January
2014: The Year That Was

When will we get real?

Two days back, we celebrated Earth Day by turning off lights and burning a candle for an hour. That candles were adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, we conveniently forgot. And after doing our bit for the planet, we went off to sleep in our air conditioned rooms.

In two days, we will be celebrating the Festival of Colours by pouring buckets full of coloured water on each other. Less than a hundred miles away, the villages are reeling under one of the worst periods of drought in recent years.

When will the disconnect end? When will be get real?

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A Drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.