A Memoir on the Striking Contrasts in the City of Joy!

Kolkata is no doubt the city of joy. Nevertheless, within my short stay I found out that it is also the city of striking contrasts. There is here everything innovative, but there are also the poorest of the poorest. There are the rag pickers earning their living through rags of resale value, there are the beggars in thousands, there is the most populated safe haven of prostitute abode in India, there are multitudes earning their living with their hand pull rickshaws. Across these destitute, the women folk have always suffered the worst. Women, sadly regarded unequal partners even by their fellow destitute have always faced exploitation and oppression first. A chorus of this is often there in the daily papers and other magazines. A daily paper once wrote: “In the wee hours of Saturday a rag-picking woman’s daughter (8)–who were sleeping in their shanty–at Canal West Road, Maniktala was picked up by Sanjay Palit (29), a resident of Muraripukur Road. Sanjay was caught red handed, thanks to a passerby,” (“Girl Molested,” The Statesman, 2 October, 2006, p2). There is hunger here in the midst of abundance and there are untold miseries in this city of joy. There are bridges of justice and love to be built towards fuller life!

#FullerLIfe #Justice #Love