Inside the slums...

One of the first inhabitants of the Kathputali Colony we met up with was a young woman, mother of two. The small family stood outside her tiny house, a single room, cluttered with a bed, kitchen utensils, and a small television set – so dusty that it seemed it hadn’t been used for years. Balancing her little son at her hip, the woman smiled at us warmly.

“Sagun,” She introduced herself. “I am a dancer.”

“We’re from Springdales, here for a competition,” I said. “Just to get a gist of all that live here, we want to ask you some questions.”

She nodded; she was used to this attention. Many people came here, I knew, to see their creativity, their wondrous art, and their surprisingly bad living conditions. Swatting away a persistent fly, the woman smiled, whilst her daughter fanned her face with her palm. The Delhi heat seemed intensified here, with no electricity and no fans. Yet, everyone I’d seen seemed at ease, comfortable in their colony, at home with the heat.

“You said you are a dancer. Where all have you been to showcase your talent?” I asked, picking up my notebook to pen down a few pointers.

“Well, I’ve been to Dubai, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Russia, France, Holland, Japan, Turkey, Bangkok, and Bangladesh…” She went on and on, the list of countries she had travelled to overwhelming my speed of writing. I expected her to say one, maybe two names of cities or places nearby – hardly did I think she would have travelled the world! Noticing my disbelief, she smiled. “I’ve been to places like Pune, Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Sikkim, Orissa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, too,” She said.

“Wow,” I blinked. “Where did you stay in these places?”

“They stay at hotels,” Our guide from the NGO we had partnered up with, said. “They go to countries with event organizers to showcase their arts and dances. There, they live in the lap of luxury, and most of the people of this colony have been all around the world.”

All around the world, indeed! Every person we talked to was specializing in dance, or music. Most of them had colourful puppets in their houses, with dhols, dholaks and other instruments – handmade, one man told us proudly – at full display. The women wore a rich variety of colours, and the children, walking barefoot in the dirty streets and around the overflowing garbage – seemed to converse in a variety of languages.

“What all are you kids taught at school?” I asked a group of little boys, all watching us with undisguised curiosity, whilst at the same time asking us to click photographs of them.

“Dancing, singing, and sometimes even acrobats,” The oldest of them said. He grinned. “That’s what we learn from our parents too.”

“Show us something?” We asked, teasingly. But all the boys seemed happy enough to show us a few cartwheels, or standing upside down, as an over-enthusiastic one clambered up a ten foot pole swiftly and easily.

“Our parents did this too,” One of them cooed. The others heartily agreed, but by then we knew that all this talent was in their blood. Coming from families with such rich culture, they were all ready and proud to take on their family’s traditions.

Yet for a community that has traveled all around the world, and has such good exposure it was difficult not to be awestruck by the contrast between the poor living conditions of the people, and the rich culture they exhibited. Over time, this colony had lost its sheen, to modern entertainers like televisions, internet, even the cinema. Home to thousands of artists and artisans, the slums are a huge contrast to the inhabitants and their achievements.

It was then that we decided what our service for this aspect of the community would be. Taking help from social networking sites, and creating blogs and websites about this community, we decided then and there that we would do whatever is in our power to encourage, promote and re-establish their culture. By posting videos of the children performing stunts online we would help them exhibit their talents at the best.

They are the ones who can exhibit our culture at its best, after all.