A question without answer!

Today I came across two pictures (shown above).

The first one is of Rubina Ali, who played young Latika in Slumdog Millionaire, along with her mother at her slum at Dharavi.

The second one is of the same girl, along with her co-stars, on the red carpet at Oscars.

Looking at the second picture a question came to my mind. What must be going through the minds of these kids, who were born and lived in slums, to stand on red carpet amongst the best of glamorous world? A world which must be so different to the one they live in?

I am sure I can never even imagine, let alone find out, what exactly was going on in their mind.

Probably, they just may be thinking they were just destined to be there on the red carpet as they were destined to live their lives in those slums. (In fact Rubina Ali, when asked prior to going to the ceremony said: “I’m very happy that I’m going to the Oscars; my friends are saying, your fate is so good".)

Yes, apart from destiny nothing comes to mind.

What else it can be?

As I was thinking about this, I remembered a very difficult time I had answering questions by elder daughter during my last visit to Mumbai.

Living abroad for all of her eight years life, she has not come across the jhopadapatti scenes of Mumbai. While driving along the slums near Sewri, she saw two kids bathing in the roadside nulla.

She asked: Why are they taking bath in the dirty waters, don't they have a bathroom?

I tried to get away by just saying: "Beta, no, they are poor".

Not one to give up questioning, she asked: "Why are they so poor, don't their father work?"

(I knew where it came from, on occasions I had to tell her I had to go to work because otherwise my company will not pay me money).

The question silenced me.

I had no idea how to tell an eight year girl that the father of those slum children must be working very hard; much harder than her own father has ever worked.

It was just their destiny, their fate.

With all the advances in human development we have not found a solution to vanish such wide gap in destinies.

And what about God, who comes across as just and fair in all religious scriptures? With all his fairness why He produces humans with such diverse destinies?

The question is profoundly philosophical; the answer need not be one.

If we get one, that is!