My regular visits to the informal settlements (slums) where I do my research, are creating problems for me. I thought I would just go into a community, do my research on sanitation, which is a big issue there, write up my thesis and graduate. But I am falling in love with this people who I have come to discover are just people. They laugh, they are friendly, they have serious social problems, they also have dreams and hope. And now they are encroaching on my personal blog space where I was to shamelessly promote myself. I have dedicated my entire PhD worth three years of my life to them so they should let me keep this blog for myself.
Tomorrow being valentine's day, I will let them have just a little bit of my blog because they have already taken a little bit of my soul. I have come to know some slum dwellers in a very personal way because I have spent a lot of time listening to their stories. What I wonder about when I listen to them is whether I would be writing this blog if I had grown up in a slum. I was not raised in a rich home and sadly, I have no trust fund to enable my lazing around all day. But, thanks to my clever mother, I got a chance at an education that has opened up many opportunities for me. My friends in the slums do not have these same opportunities and hence their options are limited.
Is life fair? I ask. And I have no answer.