Poverty in India is rampant. Some 800 million people live below the "Indian Dream." (India's population is approximately 1,155,347,700 people.)
Also rampant in India are rats. Much of this problem can be ascribed to crowded and unsanitary living conditions. Cities are overrun by rats to the point whereby sizeable crews of rat-killers are employed for night work. Each rat-killer must work hard all night to find and dispatch his quota of 30 rats per night, six nights a week, or he doesn't get his pay.
You see, it's not just a matter of putting in your time--you must deliver, or soon be without a job. After the critters' demises, they are bagged and taken to the designated lab for disease testing.
When there are openings for rat-killing positions, there may be 4000 applicants applying, perhaps 30-40 of them college graduates.
Let's look at an example of a typical exterminator whom we will call "Sam." If he meets his quota, he makes 271.00 dollars a month. He lives in a small 140 square foot hut, with his family of 16 people. They keep their clothes in trash bags and sleep on the floor with one fan to ventilate their domicile. Have you figured out that their hut is 10 feet X 14 feet?
Dear Reader, you say, how could a person who writes about beautiful hymns, etc., write a sordid things about rats? Depressing... Well, walk through this with me...I sorted through a stack of old crosswords out of the Amarillo paper---which my son had brought me. On the reverse side from the crossword was an article on the above subject. I read it, and thought about it...and it got to GNAWING on me.
We should ever remind ourselves that in our time on this earth, we are so incredibly blest...and it just seemed to happen that way. Time to count our blessings that we at times overlook...and be thankful.
(For more in-depth reading, see Google, "India Poverty, Killing Rats in Mumbai, A Job to Die For.").
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