The Lotus Girl

I asked her name and she said "Gulshan". In Urdu Gulshan means Garden. She is a happy kid, dancing and singing enjoying her existence, enjoying her environment to the fullest. She picked up few lotuses from this pond, few from that pond; gave me a bunch, put a bunch in her plastic bag and run off to her home. Her mother sells flower in the local market, her father was a farmer but now he works as a laborer in a near by construction site. This is New Town Calcutta - the newest destination of IT and ITES companies.

Gulshan’s family lost their land when Government requisitioned a vast area for setting up a new township to help IT industries set up shop. Massive buildings, mall, hotel, villa & apartment blocks are filling up the space where Gulshan’s forefathers used to throw net and harvest paddy. Uneducated, impoverished farmers as they were; their need for livelihood makes very little sense. Very soon one garden will be choked with fly ash and another with the burden of life. Uneducated, Impoverished Life.

Done