Indian Inequalities

While visiting Bandra last week, I was disgusted by the extreme inequalities in Mumbai, India. Its incredible how someone can trample on, spit on, or ignore the extreme suffering of not only a another human being but a fellow country man. How can the filthy rich, oh and I mean filthy, sit in their Malabar Hill mansions, Bollywood worthy Bandra condos, or their exclusively owned gated communities of Hari Andani, without feeling the least bit of remorse? In order to live with such disregard, one must dehumanize or make the poor and helpless invisible. But how can the haves not see entire families of four or more lining the sidewalks; sleeping huddle together with their children in the middle so as to shelter them from the night breeze? The desperate cries of a destitute baby are so weaken by hunger that they do not reach them, sitting high up in their penthouses. They avoid walking a few blocks to their neighborhood train stations, for with personal drivers and AC cars with tinted windows, why would they take public transportation. But as they drive by Bandra Station, how can they ignore the crippled, old and young alike who are starving, begging for their next meal while rolling in agony in their own feces? But even when a few, skinny and dirty, wander to their doorsteps, escaping the eye of a snoozing security guard, they look blankly past them or shoo them off as you would a dog. The lack of apathy here scares me to death. How can someone look at human suffering in the face of a swollen bellied child while eating a sandwich and sneer, moved by disgust rather than compassion. These Indian inequalities are the most shocking in big cities such as Mumbai, where millions of dollars apart, people co-exist within a few blocks radius; some sleeping on down pillows and comforters while others on the cold concrete. I will not deny that inequality exists all over the world, in our own countries, but not like this. I consider myself to be well traveled, over 20 countries in all, but never have I seen such pronounced decadence and despair. I can not help but to feel alarmed. What kind of a world do we live in that allows over 1/4 of the population in India to live on less than $1 a day while rent in a Bandra condo starts at $1000 per month? And we participate in this debauchery, acquiring more and more material possessions; our greed insatiable. I dare you to challenge this unjust social order because living in extremes benefits no one and in the words of MLK, an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.