Wednesday, August 20, 2008

housing dilemmas

Today we went to see an apartment that could potentially become the Swingin' Mumbai Linguist Pad, except also maybe not. Is it a bad sign when a brand new building has THIS posted in the hallway? Please note it is a permanent sign:



Yeah, that's what I thought. The place is admittedly spacious and brand-spankin' new (and yet, filthy, like everything here that has been in existence for more than 15 seconds), and it has a big kitchen where we could host wild dinner parties for all three of our local friends!



Then there's the matter of the view out the back windows.



I just learned the other day that 60% of Mumbai's 12 million residents live in slums, so it's not like there is a slum-free part of town. And as I have mentioned here before, you are constantly confronted with the contrast between wealth and filth, and this is a good example. There's just no room to keep the two apart, so one rises up out of the other. And I'll be honest, it's hard not to feel like a jerk for being on the wealthy side of the equation--because even though I really believe our presence here is ultimately good for the local economy, that isn't helping the people who live behind this building right now.

No comments: