How did we do it?

There was and is no McKinsey or Harvard study out on how children in the mid seventies in 20th century Mumbai, erstwhile Bombay dealt with lack of space and resource to develop a wholesome life in the future.

Yet we did it.  By that I mean as a sibling growing up in a four person household with less than 500 sq ft of space among us and sporadic electricity to aid our lifestyle we ended up alright.

Many in my generation went through that experience.  Incomprehensible to me too now that I look back.  Take for example the idea that we did not understand the notion of 24 hour running water.  Forget hot water.  Bathing was an activity involving boiling couple of gallons on a stove top and then mixing that wok full of super heated water with a cold bucket in the bathroom.  From that point on you proceeded to use a coffee mug shaped vessel to pour the now semi hot water over your anatomy.

Scrubbing the critical zones that required soaping (mind you that oppressive humid heat index outside was at 100 all the time in Bombay) as either dust storms or sticky dirt depending on summer or monsoon outside would infest your skin and its crevices in the prior day.

All this had to be done in record time so that the next person in line would be able to get in to the same bathroom and proceed with their ablutions.

Now the kicker.  A surprise guest would pop in just as one of us had exited the bathroom.  My grandmother for instance.  We knew not where she came from - she had many children scattered across all India where she spent few months each.  When her mood beckoned she upped and left.  Shaped like Quasimodo due to a long life raising eight kids her spine had curved like a parabola and her height was a mere three feet above ground.  Or so I thought.

Knock knock.  I was restless and scurried to open our front door and there she was.  With a huge metal trunk same size and weight as hers next to her.  Again physics was not yet my forte so I could not begin to compute how this was possible.  How the heck did she materialize let alone that 50 kg trunk?

And from that point forward she simply assimilated her routine in a 'two person going to work 30 miles away' household.  And the two (my parents) took transit to go to work - not a car in the driveway (there was no driveway as we were in a multi unit apartment near a train station).

Once we had a first cousin show up and stay for few months with us.  Yeah!  I am still unclear as to how the logistics evolved.  When did he bathe?  Did he bathe?  How did we manage to all sleep?  We did else I would have turned out a zombie.

Fast forward our kid had more square footage than the entire apartment I grew up in.  Just to herself to operate, study, play etc.  No one uses transit.  It is disgusting.  And there is no question of a pop in.

No one will open the door.  Usually some crazy person asking for money is what is outside when door bell rings unannounced.  They are called solicitors.

Any rate the idea that humans adapt is true.  We make what we can from what we have.  Some are more successful than others.  Today as I look at the American landscape and see the strife and politics I feel fortunate I was raised in adversity.  I can handle this.