A trip to the hells (I)

The two best movies I've ever seen about India are "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Born into brothels". The first one is about the famous TV contest "Do you want to be a millionaire?" and deals with a slum in Mumbai. The second movie is about the prostitutes and their children who live in the red-light district in Kolkatta. Since I saw the films I always kept the curiosity of visiting those complex and dark Indian realities. Moreover, I think that to know a country means to visit its treasures but also to know how its hells are.

After discovering that there is also a big red-light district in Delhi I decided to go there one evening to have a look. The place was a market street in the old city, like any other street: dirty, dark, disatrous, with some baggers and people sleeping on the pavement. In the ground floor of the buildings there were all kind of shops and nobody could say that the dirty doors between a shop and the next one were the entrances to the hells. Maybe you could think that something strange was happening because plenty of men went in and out through those doors. I decided to enter and explore by myself and I went up the narrow smelly stairs. In the first floor there were two or three open doors. I went in the first hell: there were about fifty young girls, with an Estern face look, probably from Nepal, sitting down on the floor or on some chairs. Although they had put some make-up they looked sad and careless. They were absent-minded and smoked, and they were spitting to the floor. They neither smile nor did any gesture to attract the dozens of men who went in and out all the time. Sometimes, a man approached to a girl, gave her some money and they went into a tiny dark room for a few minutes.

Then I went in the next room and I could see the same but even more surrealist: in the middle of the place there were two goats eating grass and some unhealthy dogs sleeping. A Brahaman was praying in front of some Hindu gods and offering them some incense. Some street sellers were going in and out shouting and trying to sell different things: clothes, fruits, sweets... On the second and on the third floors there were similar scenes, and the same in every of the following buildings.

When I went back to the street, I suddently was sorrounded by a small group of men who threatened me with a stick and they stole all my money. Fortunately, I could keep my passport and I wasn't injured. This was the price I payed to discover the hells. Now I'm seriously thinking of watching the movie again instead of visiting the slums in Mumbai.