Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I found it heartbreaking that they sometimes went without food. How could there be a
world with so much and yet another world with so little?
We sat and talked about life and love. He told me he had always dreamed of being a
rickshaw driver, though he still hoped that one day he would own his own.
“What does that mean?” I asked him. “Do you pay someone else?”
“Oh, yes,” Dheeru laughed. “I pay much to drive rickshaw.”
Rent was not cheap for rickshaws, I learned. Whatever money Dheeru had left over he
spent on his family, but often there was not much. He had no money for his sons to at-
tend secondary school. He had no savings should his wife get sick, or worse, if something
should happen to him. They lived one inch from disaster in a one-room shack, and yet as
he explained, they still gave to those who had even less. Just as I had seen in Pittsburgh, in
Turkey, in France, there were so many people who survived by their connections to other
people. They were creating a web of kindness, taking care of each other, and being taken
care of in turn.
As Dheeru told me, the little money his family had left over went to others, “When there
is good day, when we have some more, we give to orphans.”
“What?” I asked, thinking I had misheard him at first.
“That's Indian culture,” he replied. “If I have a nice client give lots of money, I give to
orphanage. You know, children that don't have mums and dads.”
By now, a crowd had gathered outside, word spreading through the community that a
Westerner had come to visit Dheeru and his family. I had become a celebrity—and I didn't
even have Kindness One with me! As Dheeru took me on a walk through the slum, a group
of children followed at a close distance, giggling and whispering as though I were the King
of England. Just as I had grown up on stories of India, so they had grown up on stories of
Britain.
I looked around at the women sitting outside, the men coming home from work, the
children behind us, and immediately saw the paradox: Though there was extreme poverty,
there was also extreme joy. Of course, there is no greater pain than a hungry belly, and
living a spiritual life also requires having one's physical needs met, but I also saw that in
the absence of material things, the bonds of family and the camaraderie of friendship were
not just about friendly social connection. They were about survival. They were about love.
They were one home connecting to another home, lighting up the grid of this world.
