Cleanup

The town I grew up in India was known for wide lanes. Wider than what most other cities in India are used to. This was about twenty years ago. Then civic standards took a nosedive. People cared less for the law and cared even less for order. Once wide streets were encroached by the rich and the poor. People who dared to protest in an absurd reversal of logic were condemned as villains. Unfortunately, the men entrusted with enforcing the law looked the other way. Flouting the law became the accepted way of life.

This past week, an enterprising administrator has stepped in amidst the chaos. He has sent crews to demolish scores of illegal structures throughout the city. Comically, folks who knew they were in breach of the laws have demolished their forbidden structures before the cranes got to them. My mom tells me that a large group of curious onlookers follow the cranes everywhere.

Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad. Just near our home stood a wooden shack that was the shop where a barber conducted his trade for the past twenty years. Today his shack is no more; his source of livelihood gone. As I said, with the good comes the bad!