India Online Journal, November 2001
Author: Jennifer Kumar

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Day 11

This morning I planned to meet my classmate at the Madras Christian College Main Gate, then go stay at Amma's friend's house until Monday.

This morning, I also decided to walk. As I reached the main road, I saw a not-so-uncommon sight, that is quite disturbing to me, all the same. A beggar was sitting in the "island of rocks" in the middle of the highway, draped with two rags, one on his waist, and one on his chest. As he sat on the rocks, he was surrounded to his front by cows and to the left and right by passing traffic. He was sitting on the rocks, and had surrounded his body with waste bags in which he dug to the bottom for a drip of food. These "bags" are the baggies which are given when hotel (resturant) food is given in a parcel (to-go). The sambar, racam and other "watery" foods are packed in small plastic baggies, while dosa, idli, pongal and other "solid" foods are packed with a banana leaf and newspaper. The beggar can and does (sorry to say in brutal detail) forces his tongue to the bottom of all the bags to suck out all the left overs, and even licks any remaining food pieces from the disposed banana leaves.

One of the reasons this beggar may have brought these items to this particular place because the dogs wouldn't vie with him for the "food." This is no joke or figment of my imagination, this is the reality of the utterly impoverished in Urban India. I saw it with my own eyes once. On the street sides 'garbage bins' are kept. These bins are made of cement and are about 3.5 feet high and about 5 feet round. It is here where one sees cows, dogs and crows gathered to find the left overs since ayahs will bring the house garbage and dump it in these bins. In India house garbage is very minimal, and usually confined to vegetable wastes. The saddest is when I saw (several times) beggars also added to this combination of living beings also fighting for the food. As the cow or dog is licking the sambar out of the packet, the beggar has stolen this from him. Even while going for field work, small children, street children, have told similiar stories. But, they say being small, they can not fight the dogs as easily as the adults.
To most foreigners reading this who have not been to India, or those who have been to India, but stayed only in rich homes, this may seem unreal. This is very real and happening daily. It may not happen always on open roads like this incident. Sometimes, it happens inside the slum areas or in other areas away from public areas where garbage is landfilled. In addition, foreigners who come to India may see this happening, but may not know exactly what is going on because of lack of background knowledge.

So, I met my classmate late at the MCC Gate. In India all colleges will have a "gate" surrounding it. This gate is usually a brick and cement or rock and cement fence about 8- 10 feet high. This gate is meant to keep the beggars and other wandering people out of the college campus. MCC has four entry points I know of to get through the gate into the college. All are manned by male watchmen. Only the main gate will stay open after dark, the others will close by 6 or 6:30 pm and reopen at 6 am the next morning.

My classmate has a nice job doing social work in village and tribal areas in the next state. He had told a few interesting stories I would like to share. The first regards the 'manual scavenging caste'. Scavengers are the lowest caste, their job is to remove 'night soil' (ie. human excreta) from villages and toilets and dispose of it. They do this in very inhuman ways. They carry a broom and 'dust pan' and a wicker basket.

Photo taken from Frontline magazine. Click on photo to see more photos of their life and read their sorrowful story. They use nothing to protect their feet or hands or other body parts from the germs or smell of the waste. They will sweep it up, sometimes they have to use their bare hands to remove it and put it in the wicker bucket. They will carry this wicker bucket without any cover inside it on their head to the dumping grounds. This caste is treated very badly by the upper castes. For instance they can not take water from their tumblers, they are forced to drink from bathroom jug. They also have to sweep their path as they walk, so not to 'pollute' the area. I actually completed my Master's Thesis on this group of persons doing this work in Tambaram. Anyhow, the group my classmate worked with had one very interesting and unique superstition.

This superstition may make the weak at stomach become sick, so this is the warning! Their superstition states that when the upper caste people are sick, instead of disposing of their waste, they will take it to their homes and mix something with it and eat it. They were not able to give a reason for this superstition. Maybe they will feel purified by getting their illnesses or something. (My guess.)

My classmate also told a story about how he saw the tribals making 'country liquor.' He said they will have this clay pot with a bottle inside it, this bottle has a 'pipe' which goes to another pot sitting on top of this pot. In the top pot they will boil a mixture of jaggery and flavoring that had been stored underground for two weeks before. They boil this on wood fire and they sell it in litre bottles. One litre costs Rs 10. Daily the other tribal men buy this, and daily they earn only Rs 25. My classmate had tasted a drop and said it tasted 'salty.'

Later on in the day, after lunch, I met my classmate and a few other female classmates in the college. We stood in the main gate for some time waiting for others to come, and in this time one girl walked by wearing tight jeans and tight short top. Actually, Chennai girls in the city are becoming modernized and some will wear this dress, but in Tambaram, being that most girls studying here come from villages and not cities, they will not wear these clothes. For instance, in my class out of the 13 girls, only 3 used to wear jeans. And those who did only wore them about once every other week. They would only have had one pair of jeans. So, this girl walked by, and I noticed the female classmates who were standing next to me in sari, and myself in Salvaar Kamiz, staring at her, aghast. It is becoming fashionable for girls to dress like this, and some also wear short skirts to just above the knee. There is actually a dress code for the college. But many girls (I guess 90%) in MCC wear salvaar kamiz or sari to college. Those who do wear jeans and dresses which show their curves or their exposed legs get many stares. Although staring is not considered rude in India, some girls do get harrassed by the boys. This harrassment can be anything from name calling to touching and fondling. This harrassment is termed 'eveteasing'. I had not brought many of my western dresses to India when I studied here, mostly because I love to wear Indian clothes. To me, Indian clothes, especially saris, are so comfortable and they suit the Indian climate very well. However, the times I did wear my loose overalls (tunic) and a few long American skirts (slightly tight) I got stared and by too many people, so I stopped wearing that. I will still get stared at if I wear Indian clothes, but that is a different kind of stare.

After waiting some time, and realizing our other friends may not come, we called them up. In India there are many public phones. You can find these by looking for the yellow signs reading ISD, STD, PCO. ISD is international calls, STD is long distance (within India) calls, and PCO is public calls. While waiting to speak to them, we had a tea, since there was a tea stand next to the PCO.

. So, after talking to them, we realized they had not left their house at all due to the bus strike. Every year before Diwali all the bus drivers will get a 20% bonus, but this year the government would not give it, so they had gone on strike. In India when there are no busses running it is very difficult to get around since about 80% of the people depend on public transport, especially to go longer distances and commuting to college, school or work. Also, due to this bus strike the roads were very empty. It reminded me of the emptiness of the roads on election day! So, we had a quick tea instead, and my classmates started home. Before my classmates left, we saw the cycle repair man. There is a shop called "cycle hospital" across from the college gate. If anyone with a cycle or motorcycle needs air put in their tire, he charges about Rs 1. He also did a lot of repair work on the cycle I used for the two years I was in MCC.
Following this, I went back to Aditi's house and rested and studied the rest of the night.
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