I saw her toddler playing in the soil
Shoveled up by the excavators groaning in the vicinity…
She was lost in carefully sieving the sand
Heaped up beside her… which seemed like a never ending task…
May be the man hauling the bricks to the construction site
is her husband…
I caught a glance of him once … helping her lift the heavy
sand container…
And once playfully pinching the cheeks of the child so happy
to have found a toy car in the earth…
There are these buildings I see, standing tall and almost
done
And around them I see loads of material and metal
A number of supply vehicles and tools
I see people in crisp clothing discussing the design and
aesthetics of the housing complex
I imagine many families dreaming of moving into these
apartments
Parents and kids, kids and parents, newly married and soon to
be married.
They must be happy about their new homes… much better than
what they are leaving in right now.
More space for the new furniture, clothes, food, toys and
happy moments.
Here, it seems, they have a playground and a pool, shops and
a cinema hall
Club for happy gatherings and restaurants for celebrations
They will live here like they have lived all these years in
their dreams…
Far but not out of sight is the picture not so good
Temporarily made slum like dwellings cover up the area along
the tall building
The roofs made up of plastic sheets face the wrath of the
nasty wind…
There are a handful of things strewn around in that single
room
And there are no colors on the walls or tiles in the floor
There don’t seem to be any cabinets to store valuables
There doesn’t seem to be any provision to hang a happy picture
of the poor family
They can’t have many belongings
They will have to move away from this site to another
From one town to another
This undone house will then be demolished
And a way would be made to the grand building behind…
There is a handmade three-stone stove is in the front…
She cooks for her husband here …
And serves it to him when he walks back home after his day’s
work
Tired and his hands sore carrying the stones and watering
the concrete walls
And for her child who is coated in red mud now,
Who will sleep and wake up tomorrow in the same state
And for herself, who hasn’t really been able to sieve out
the suffering
And has not been able to hold on to the grains of lifeless sand
running out of her hands…
Houses over houses for the richer people they have created
And selflessly made their dreams come true
But what a tragedy … they could never think of house of
their own
They just could not build a happy home of their own…
