One evening in a taxi and a mall

Driver: sala aaj din hi kharab nikla pure din mein char bar gaadi kharab ho gayi subha se kuch nahin khaya aur abhi udhar tyre banwa kar aa raha hoon aap jo kiraya denge usse daru pee kar so jaoonga
One of us: khali pet daru pioge to mar jaoge
Driver: sahab waise bhi sarkar jinda nahin chodegi achcha he daru se hi mar jaaonga

This was a short conversation with a taxi driver on our last trip to kolkata the way of delivery was so tragic that it predesposed me to think about the incident deeply on my way back to kgp.The centre of my contention were two extreme situations i faced just in a short span of half an hour. Actually at the time of above conversation we were returning from ionox( the biggest and most exavagant mall of kolkata). while our outing at the mall i was fascinatedby the opulence and consumerism which such a malls are known for..... Standard of people shoping there (Especially boy friends of beautiful babes shoping there) and price tag on the products were huge enough to give me an inferiority complex. We were looking complete fool there like a bunch of monkeys in a fairy land. But also there grew a longing to become big and rich in life so that i can also enjoy all the comforts being offered there. Such was the frustration that we left the mall in ten minutes with a confidence that someday we will also be able to afford such a mall as our regular shoping venue.
We boarded a taxi to esplened and did our shoping and we were on our way back to howrah station when the above said conversation happened. The pain and emotions in the voice of that taxi driver forced my thought away from the memory of the ionox and the frustration i faced there. Here i was, contemplating the condition of such a taxi driver and crores of poor people in the country like him It seemed that my life was a luxury compared to there's.This was the second extreme of the country india... An extreme which is far more real then the loftiness of that shoping mall.......An extreme that is seldom talked of when refering india..........An extreme which shows that what the miserable state indians are in..........An extreme which raises a question can india afford such a consumerism and opulence as was there in that mall......

I don't know weather people shoping there were happy or not but it was for sure that this driver was in a very pathetic condition, and if i can envy a person shoping in a mall i should be empathic with this driver too. That fateful night i questioned myself again and again
And i found i was .......
But there was no frustration but sympathy for the poor
no determination to do something for him but only a hollow sympathy
& i gave him the money (whick he may have dranked off) and forgot the whole episode.

There in the train when i contemplated the whole episode It gave me a feeling of guilt together with a hatred against my shelfish attitude. Isn't such a attitude of indians responsible for a third of our population below poverty line.In america an increase of 2% unemplyment is enough to defeat a president in his second term but in india we are dreaming to become a economic power in the world just because a hand full of western jobs are being outsorced in the country. We are happy with our current telecom boom when thousands of indian village don't have a single phone. We are happy to see malls full of lights and grandiuer when a student from rural india does n't have enough power suply to light a bulb and prepare for his examinations.
This two situations were not incidental but were the reality of the country india .....................
A bitter reality which is beimg faced by each and every one of us every evening.........................
But we find our helpless to do anything other than sympathising..........................
I don't know weather there will be a change in my attitude or not but untill such an attitude will prevail in all of us, india will be evaded of realising the dreams it has dreamed off.