The Unwanted

One of the most fundamental differences of the people of Calcutta from the rest of the world is the value they place on human life. Working at the Motherhouse for the Dying and Destitute women I am faced with death, suffering, cruelty, misery and mutilations daily. The women that come here are alone, unwanted and disposed of by Calcutta and the world.

Yesterday a beautiful 14 year old girl was found lying at the train station left for dead and was brought into the Mother house. She was too weak to walk. Baby as the Masi have named her has Tuberculosis and epilepsy amongst many other diseases and injuries. Baby is so traumatized she can no longer speak. If she could afford hospital care she would recover but she can’t and so she will needlessly die like many others. We don’t know where she came from or how she got there but what we do know is that no ones care’s who she is…or her story. No one is looking for her. She is lost. Another casualty of Calcutta.

In the Hindu religion they believe in reincarnation. This is the belief that the soul will be reincarnated again and again on earth till it becomes perfect and reunites with it’s source.  This process is described in the Bhagavad gita: “Just as a man discard’s worn out clothes and puts on new clothes, the soul discards worn out bodies and wears new ones.”  They devalue the life they are in waiting for the hopes that the next one will be better. “ “All the better hurry this crappy one along because in the next one I will be happy, better.”

Most of this city lives on the streets. These people literally bathe, sleep, cook, shop and defecate on the streets where they live. Within a 10X10 Ft parcel of sidewalk you can find the entire contents of a families worldly possessions and the intimate details of their lives are open to everyone that passes by. To borrow your neighbors sugar simply requires taking 4 paces to the left and sticking your hand out. I pass through their ‘homes’ and I am embarrassed and uncomfortable. They have nothing and little hope of ever having anything but more of the same.

 There is no privacy and very if any dignity in living this way. I am disturbed most when I see the children sleeping on the streets. One family is living right outside the gate of my hotel with 5 children; the 4-6 year olds are tough as nails and well into their life of crime but the tiny babies that run around naked are so thin and helpless. The babies lay on the sidewalk all day and night and the sleep under a little net canopy…the kind you would find at a picnic to keep the flies off the food on your picnic table. This is their kennel. They are growing up on the crowded sidewalk, 2 ft away from the busiest street in Calcutta. Neglected, stolen, sold, abused and unwanted taught to beg as infants.

In this environment life becomes raw and the things we take for granted like the right to privacy, or a clean glass of water, personal space, ownership or individuality. They simply don’t apply here. Every breathe…. every step is a struggle…. a mortal fight to survive and many don’t. Calcutta has lost its way.