After we'd been walking for fifteen minutes or so along streets busy with traffic and people, we got to a quieter area of the city. I asked Lakshmi where her house was, and pointing to what looked like a slum only a short distance away, she said, "There, uncle."
I became apprehensive. It is common knowledge that slums are unhealthy places, that people living in slums are all small time crooks, dirty, violent, and diseased, and that it is dangerous for a normal human being to go into a slum. Nevertheless, I did not feel like turning back. So, bracing myself for some rough encounters, I followed Lakshmi and my whole world was turned upside down. The main street of the slum was unpaved, but so clean I could have sat right down on it to have a meal. Except for a couple of bicycles there were no vehicles of any sort anywhere around, and the atmosphere of the place was quiet and peaceful, but most amazing of all was the way I was welcomed by the slum dwellers. They appeared quite surprised to see a foreigner among themselves. Nevertheless, from all of them I received only welcoming smiles and friendly gestures all the way to Lakshmi's house.
"Here, uncle," Lakshmi said, smiling happily while she opened the door of a small abode made out of bricks and mud.
I followed her inside and then just stood there, speechless, wondering where I was. Just one room as bare as any room could be. Hardly anything in it. Past the entrance on the right three or four shelves with a few folded clothes placed on them. A small cooker in a corner, but no bed of any sort. There were a couple of straw mats rolled up near the shelves and I figured out that after spreading them on the floor at night that was where Lakshmi and her mother slept. Standing in the middle of the room, I felt like I was the most selfish and stupid jerk that had ever existed.
"Uncle," Lakshmi said, "do you like my house?"
"Yes, Lakshmi," I said, "it is a lovely house." What I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and stay there forever.
"Uncle, I am so happy you came to my house," she said. "Sit down, uncle, but why are you crying?"
"I am not crying, Lakshmi," I said. "Something got in my eyes, that's all." I am not used to lying, and my answer surely did not sound like the truth, but Lakshmi accepted it in good spirit, and after I'd sat down on the floor, she went on to show me proudly her few possessions: Some plastic bangles, a couple of comic books, a fancy pen, and a colorful scarf she liked very much.
"Uncle," she said afterwards, "now we go back to the temple."
"Yes, Lakshmi," I said, trying to swallow the hard lump I felt in my throat. "Let's go."
