Blogging the WSF

Mumbai, Jan 20 - It is the last full day of the forum today and the energy remains high. Tomorrow evening there will be a closing plenary but the workshops and panels are over at the end of this day.

At the end of my first blog I said that for the first time in my life I felt safe among a crowd of thousands in India. Upon reflection, there is more to add than that. Outside the gates of the forum are tens of peddlars selling toy drums, maps of various countries and cities, balloons, and more. They desperately hawk their wares to the thousands of moneyed foreigners and Indians who step out of the forum gates. It is hard to say no and I had to implore a guy yesterday to not force his wares on me. Worse still, are tens of beggar women and children, who, sensing the opportunity to beg from thousands of delegates, have flocked to the outside of the NESCO grounds. How to say no to them? Saying yes guarantees a mob, attracting ten times the number of beggars who contest that if you gave one of them money, you ought to give others. They tug at your shirt sleeves, the murmur "baksheesh" (gift in Hindi), and chide you for denying them. How do tens of thousands of self-respecting activists, anti-poverty activists reconcile discussing a new world vision inside the safe confines of the forum, when reality festers immediately outside?

I do not know the answer. It is a dilemma I face everytime I come to India. And I suppose one mustn't escape into guilt, nor indifference. The deep frustration of this dilemma is what will keep us reminded of the enormous work ahead of us.