There is no privacy on the mean streets of Mumbai (Bombay) city. For hundreds of slum dwellers—most of whom do not have water connections at home—a common water tap is all there is. The severe water shortage means that corporation taps pump water for about an hour or so in the mornings and, if residents are lucky, they get a trickle in the evenings as well.
Under the relative privacy of a flyover in Mumbai, which also doubles up as home, an infant gets a good scrubbing in the traditional Indian way. The mother had to trudge a long distance through crowded streets to access a water source closest to her makeshift, yet permanent, dwelling. For those of us living in homes with piped water—even if it doesn't run for a whole 24 hours, as is the case in even middle-class areas in Mumbai—it is almost impossible to imagine how precious every hand-scoop is, for this woman. She will be stingy with how much water to use for her baby as the water in this kitchen utensil must last for the day's cooking and drinking.
Necessity is the mother of ingenuity. This particular four-wheeler on the streets of Mumbai tells its own terrible truth.
