a walk in Bhopal

Every Wednesday gas and water affected people here meet at noon to discuss problems and organize to solve them. The meeting spot is Alu Factory, which is across the street from the abandoned Union Carbide factory and has served as a natural meeting spot for survivors since the first few days after the gas leak. Now, with poisoned groundwater ruining the health of thousands of people in neighborhoods to the north of the factory (Sambhavna and Alu Factory are on the south side), people walk long distances to attend the weekly meetings. Knowing that most of the padyatris would be there, I decided to walk over to Alu Factory for the meeting and to bring my camera to take some photos of the neighborhood to share with you here.

It is about a five minute walk from Sambhavna to the Union Carbide factory. It is so hot at noon (when I took this photo) that the streets become very still and empty.

This is the wall of the factory of the front (entry) side of the factory. Because of the factory's huge size, the perimeter wall is quite long and is almost completely covered with graffiti about the continuing disaster.

Amanta Bi (left) and Guddi Bi (right) looking quite happy at Alu Factory when I arrived. Both women walked all the way to Delhi on the padyatra. Amanta Bi is always smiling and loves having her picture taken.

This is Ramgopal. He was also on the padyatra. Ramgopal lives north of the factory and is severely affected by water contamination. Like so many people around here, he has a hard time working enough to support himself and his family.

Narayan Singh addresses the meeting. About half the people in this photo were on the padyatra -- Mulchand in white, Ramgopal in blue, Chhote Khan in dark brown, Jabar Khan in fuscia, Shanta Bai, the woman in white and pink, and Nawal Singh in white, sitting in the background.

Irfan Bhai talking to Mira and a woman whose name I can't remember. Behind him, written on the wall, is the long standing invitation announcement that every Wednesday from 12 to 2 in the afternoon is a meeting here. Alu Factory is defunct. "Alu" means "potato". I think they used to make potato chips and stuff like that here.

I'm just posting this one because of cuteness. This is Nawal Singh's baby grandchild, patiently waiting for the meeting to be over.

In this photo you can see the methyl isocyanate tank tower in the upper left.

This statue, across the street from the Union Carbide factory, is the only memorial that exists in Bhopal. It has been here since shortly after the leak -- I'm pretty sure it was erected within a year or two. It, too, is used as a meeting spot for direct actions here. "we are flames not flowers" is a very popular slogan for Bhopali activists in Hindi, below -- "phul nahin, chingaari hain!" The grassroots response to the leak and continuing injustice here has had some very interesting side effects I haven't talked much about yet here. One has been the unification of involved Hindus in Muslims to a level that is very unusual for India, and another has been the empowerment of women, especially Muslim women. Muslim women have felt encouraged to take off their veils and burkas in meetings and many have ended up discarding them altogether. The disaster also created thousands of widows, who then banded together to form new groups essentially based around exercising their power as women, to survive. It's not all some romantic, pretty picture, of course. It's been an awful 21 years, and many widows were stuffed into squalid "widow's colonies" where they were eventually forced into prostitution to survive.

The graffiti above addresses Dow Chemical, Union Carbide's new owner. The guy in the photo is Ashphak, one of my favorite people here. Ashphak was on the padyatra and was one of my main companions, looking out for me and helping me with the difficult task of keeping my laptop safe and out of the extreme daytime heat. I don't know what to say about Ashphak - he's just pure kindness, to an extent that is almost jarring for someone coming over here from the States.

Ashphak and me.