Reflections on Visiting an Indian Slum

A few of the homes have electricity, most do not.  It doesn’t occur to me to ask how/whether people cook.  Absent electricity to heat a hot-pot, what would people burn?  Certainly there is no firewood around.  Kerosene?  I didn’t smell any kerosene.  The houses don’t have chimneys, so anything they do burn stays inside.

The single most shocking sight of the day is a man sitting on a blanket, his body burned badly.  There was a fire inside his house, I am told.  Two children and a woman died.  They had a lock on their door, and when the fire started they had trouble getting the lock undone in the dark.  A woman periodically waves a fan to keep the flies off his burns.  He stares straight ahead.