Beneath the waste mountain, wounded flowers blossom anew

When you pass through Ghazipur in East Delhi, you are unlikely to stop. Unless you want to buy some flowers, meat, poultry or fish from some of Delhi's largest markets for these. Surely, you haven't brought along some garbage to add to the towering mountain that keeps growing thanks to some 2500 tons of waste dumped here every day? If you have friends among the 400-odd families of waste pickers and dairy farm workers, you must brave the filth and stink to meet them.
I did not have friends among them either, when I was there in June to visit Gulmeher, better known to the locals as the place where the "phool-patti" work happens.
No, I will not write about Gulmeher. Discover it for yourself in the video below.
Before you play the video, I will just share one equation with you, that will make more sense after you see the video.
Gulmeher = art + heart + tenacity + hope.
After you see the video, you may want to stop at Ghazipur and be a part of the equation. So that your heart can feast on some painstaking art. And you can help feed the hope that makes wounded flowers and neglected lives rise up and challenge a mountain of indifference.

Video and images courtesy Gulmeher.