Graphic Reflections

While walking through the Jaipur walled city one evening, I came across a very small, dimly lit, one-man shop that specialised in repairing sewing machines. Some of the machines with him were very old, pieces of antiques in their own right. A walk through the old part of most big cities in India should reveal small repair shops / repair men who would fix anything from old blenders to radios to the oldest model of scooters. The not-so-well-to-do, the poor and many others in India do not (or can not) embrace the ‘throwaway’ or ‘upgrade’ culture.

This graphic is based on a common upper and middle class notion in India that stereotypes poor people as thieves. Money or item of even small value missing or misplaced is considered to have been stolen by a known/unknown poor. It is not difficult to ‘see’ that an overwhelming majority of poor people are not thieves and that a lot of them work very hard and do menial tasks often in inhuman conditions, to earn their bread. Those willing to leave aside their egos can seek inspiration from the lives of the poor and see in them presence of a great many values. By peering into the lives of the poor one can sometimes find justification for their acts or behaviour.