I come of poor parents. My father passed away when I was only ten. We are three brothers. I am the eldest. We live in a dark, dingy, one- roomed house. It is not fitted with tap and electricity. It has no compound, no bath and no latrine.
There is no furniture in the house. In summer, we sleep on the bare roof and in winter on the cold floor of our single room. The walls are full of holes through which come howling icy-cold winds in winter and scorching blasts as if from a furnace in summer.
In summer, we pass the major part of the day under some shady tree and in winter on the roof of the house. But on a rainy day, in winter, it is hell to sit day and night under the dripping roof under the very shadow of death.
The floor is full of pits. At some places, it has big cracks and holes. In the rainy season, insects and snakes come out of these holes. There is always a danger of its crumbling down. We have no means to have the necessary repairs effected nor can we afford to shift to a better house. The house rent is so exorbitant that we simply shudder at the idea of shifting to a better one.
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It is only a skeleton of a house. During a storm, it rocks like a house of cards. The doors and windows are all splintered and shattered. The bricks of the walls have been badly weathered by wind and rain. They are gradually being reduced to dust. They can no longer stand the wear and tear of time.
The stairs are no longer serviceable. We abandoned their use long ago. We use a bamboo ladder to go to the roof. Sometimes the bamboo ladder slips and the user falls down and receives serious injuries. Only last month, it slipped and my younger brother broke his leg.
We are on the horns of a dilemma. If we continue living here, our lives are in danger. If we think of leaving it, we can’t pay the high rate of rent these days. Cruel fates decree that we should die a slow, lingering death here.
Verily, poverty is a curse. It is a sin to be poor. It is a sin to be without a good house. There is no greater misery than to always live under the shadow of death in a shaky and rotten house in a slum.