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Preparing interactive calculation engine
Preparing interactive calculation engine
by Anees Jung
The lesson consists of two parts depicting the miserable lives of poor children. The first part describes Saheb-e-Alam, a ragpicker boy in Seemapuri, a slum area on the outskirts of Delhi. Saheb searchs for 'gold' (anything valuable) in garbage dumps. He migrated from Bangladesh after storms ruined their fields. Saheb joins a tea stall earning 800 rupees and meals, but loses his freedom. The second part tells of Mukesh, a boy in Firozabad, the center of India's glass-blowing industry. His family has been making bangles for generations. Children work in high-temperature glass furnaces, often losing their eyesight before adulthood. Unlike others who are resigned to their fate, Mukesh dreams of becoming a motor mechanic and driving a car, showing a spark of rebellion against the vicious cycle of middlemen, politicians, and police.
The narrator meets Saheb searching for coins in garbage. Seemapuri is home to 10,000 ragpickers living in mud structures without sewage or running water. Ragpicking is their only means of survival.