Our forgotten, unsung heroes

I grew up in a threestorey building in one of Bombays quieter suburbs The place is no longer quiet because our city bid goodbye to silence in the nineties but the building itself still stands inhabited more decrepit and unguarded like it always was We didnt have watchmen because we didnt need to I dont remember any other building in my locality with a watchman eitherThis isnt to say there were no burglaries but no one felt the need to hire someone to stand outside all day and night to create a deterrentToday finding a building without a watchman is as rare as finding a politician with a college degree They sit outside townships grocery stores and bookshops aided by CCTV cameras in lobbies inside elevators and outside gatesEverything we own is now a commodity to be guarded our premises policed to ensure the right people get in And while a lot of people applaud this as a means of generating employment for people from rural India who have nothing to do back home I have often thought of it as a failureWatchmen exist because we have failed to offer gainful employment to millions of Indians born by accidents of fate alone outside the borders of our cities Millions of young men armed with degrees from colleges and universities in their hometowns are routinely compelled to leave their families and move to cities abandoning everything they were taught in order to sit on plastic chairs for every waking hour of their daysThis isnt an exaggeration Speak to your buildings watchman if and when you find the time get a sense of who he is as a person and ask about what he did before he ended up in the job he currently holds The responses may surprise youOur watchmen are rarely treated as human beings Neither their feelings matter nor their comforts They must guard our homes at all hours in all kinds of weather while we sit in airconditioned rooms oblivious to the heat cold rain or ubiquitous presence of mosquitoes They do this for monthly salaries that wouldnt cover our dinners at halfdecent restaurants because that is the only option we have left themThe last place I lived in had two watchmen because there were two wings that needed to be protected They worked in shifts sharing a single room at the back of the compound eating the same meal of dal and rice every day because they had to send a bulk of their salaries home and disappearing for short vacations once every year or two They had to double as errand boys too sent off to buy vegetables by residents in the building until someone protestedI imagined them connecting with wives and parents sharing fleeting memories with children who barely remembered them then preparing to return almost as soon as they had arrivedI tried to think of what this would mean for myself were I to find myself in a similar situation away from family and friends for 11 months of every year and couldnt wrap my head around the sense of isolationA virus compelled millions of migrants to leave our cities earlier this year and return to homes devoid of electricity livelihoods and hope They did this because they knew how ruthless we could be in urban India We withhold salaries for maids who fail to turn up when theyre ill chastise watchmen for taking naps at 2 am and expect migrant workers to work well beyond the hours we do threatening them with the sack if they ever dare to complainThere has reportedly been a rise in petty crime across the city in the wake of the pandemic Rising unemployment coupled with the failure of a government that doesnt understand economics has created a crisis that will only get worse before it begins to get betterI have friends in the suburbs who tell me of burglaries and the helplessness of an understaffed police force They are all being asked to get more watchmen instead and these unarmed men are now expected to stand at the frontline and take on gangs of thieves so we can sleep a little more soundlyOur world isnt what it used to be We need to be more kind more accommodating and more sensitive if we are to get through this Look around and try being in someone elses shoes for a change Start with your watchmanWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news