Where Will They Go?

A couple months back when I took this picture they were all smiling.  They are from the 'bosti, or 'slum',  just a couple blocks from our apartment.  They have no land so they consruct small dome-shaped dwellings on the side of the road out of whatever they can manage to collect:  sticks, plastic, cardboard, discarded tin,  grass thatching.   These dwellings are perched on the side of the road, in the 20 feet  between the pavement and the rice paddy.  

Most of the people who live here are from very poor, illiterate, landless families-
rickshaw pullers, beggars,  garbage-pickers.

Some of the children go to a nearby school,  but many drop out at a young age to help earn money.

It doesn't look like much but this is home to a family of six.  Our househelper gave birth to her three children here.  It's the only home these her children have ever known.

Today the families of this bosti were given orders by the city officials to take their 'houses' and move somewhere else.  They're being evicted from the roadside.   Today they've been desperately searching for a merciful landowner who will allow them to pitch their home on the edge of their plot.   The distressed mothers wonder where their babies will sleep tomorrow night.

I get into my soft bed in my comfortable apartment and wonder...I wonder...what would it feel like to be them? 


                                                        May they find mercy.