What They Don't Tell You About Life in India | Welcome To India | Part 1 | Documentary Central

don't you think it's astounding that our planet supports 7 billion of us and Counting learning to survive in a crowded world is our biggest challenge but there's one corner where we're already well our way to adapting welcome to India over 1 in six in the world live here and to make ends meet more of us are moving to the city than anywhere else on [Music] Earth We're resourceful jobs and highly resilient it's just as well we we need all our Ingenuity to create a space we can call home if you want to know how to succeed in this new unchecked Urban world come and take a look over here who doesn't like gold we'll show you how no matter how dense the crowd we can carve out a home and build our [Music] future [Music] come and meet a 23-year-old guy who's come to the mega city of Kolkata looking to make it big Imran is known to everyone as K and lives in this crumbling house in the heart of the city's jewelry making district has has come here in search of gold and he's not the only one hey this old district is grounded with over 800 workshops where goldsmiths create the original Indian bling gold jewelry has long been the must have adornment for Indian women and doubles up as an instant emergency fund it's our insurance policy but far better to look at if you add it all together Indian housewi wives hold 11% of the globe's gold stocks that's more than the reserves of the US Germany Switzerland and the IMF put together with nighttime temperatures regularly over 30° C Caray and his friends prefer the street to their stifling room he and his closest colleagues get up at 3: to work while the city briefly [Music] sleeps [Music] [Music] Caray and his fellow gold sweepers have an agreement allocating them a couple of streets each to scour for particles of [Music] gold the first step after sweeping is this traditional Gold Rush technique Sona you will the most closely guarded part of car's Alchemy is carried out on the roof above his room now if you want to know how to make gold out of dirt listen up take one bowl of sweepings reduced to a fine silt by Banning add a good slug of nitric acid before putting on the heat for just a few seconds [Music] next give the acid and mercury a thorough mix with your [Music] hand once the mercury has attracted all the gold remove it from the [Music] pan and return to the heat to boil off the [Music] Mercury car's room is controlled by one man now gter he's recruited the Banis for their specialist skills learned in their home city of Agra 700 mil away [Music] is not the only pan frustrated with the price he's getting for his gold many of the panners are res to their position under now but K has bigger Ambitions with 1.2 billion of his hair all looking to make the best possible POS livelihood you've got to be very Kenny at finding your Niche ahead of anyone else and that can mean looking in the most unlikely of places D vova Beach on the Northern edge of Mumbai this Barron strip of sand hardly suggests big opportunity but 50 years ago new arrivals from Rajasthan made a surprising discovery this is the perfectly w and this is the water anil's grandfather realized that fresh water on a beach made it perfect for growing the desert crops from back home it is a Sweet Water you know see is a salty and this a sweet the sand loving Bittersweet vegetable fenu Greek known as meti immediately flourished growing its tasty Sprouts in just 3 days as solid family business was born I really appreciate my grandfather because he give me this business Indian people they love the fogs because it is a good for health good for diabetes and um pregnant [Music] woman today there are 32 mey Farmers here many with four or five employees and they've been granted a license to cultivate this Municipal Beach others have followed providing services to the growing Community but the houses these recent arrivals have built on the sand are illegal father to one of the 40 families calling the beach their home is Rees I'm the great person who stays next to the Sea this is my small Beach up apartment come inside I will show you he came here after falling for his wife Savita one day it was very nice day for me I saw this girl then I thought in my mind that I will marry with this girl only this is my daughter my dream is that my daughter will become a doctor four-year-old Vash naavi has an 8-year-old brother harsh they've both been brought up on the beach unlike their father who grew up in his well-to-do parents apartment but then he fell in love my father told just get out now just now how you came inside that type only you get out from this house don't come again to show me your face saita is from a poor family and has a limp from childhood polio this was so unacceptable rees's father also made sure his son lost the job it secured at Mumbai airport my father told that officer that I will not be secure for my son now because he is married and I have tell him to get lost from my house Rees now works from home so sevita expects him to do his fair share of the early morning jawes she's very angry with me because fire was not going on that's why the water became very chilled I should done it but I was I want to go for bring newspaper no my fire is not starting bus bus bus bus bus my son is going to school now bye bye bye [Music] bye sevita has a part-time job as a cleaner for a middle class family in the city but to earn a bit more on the side she deals in the Beach's homegrown [Music] speciality [Music] [Music] the family's main business however is doubling up their home as a local pub for the mey farmers now already the cter to it and the customer always come over here at whatever time they want they comes and drinks and they go away the only drink on offer is cane liquor I keep the bottles over you only but sometimes I have to hide it for cops that's why I hide inside the bag Rees doesn't have a liquor license and his illegal business has landed him in jail once already it is very much big risk to selling the liquor and if any state government will see then it will be my life will be too much Rees has few other options and so reckons the risk is one worth taking besides right now he has more immediate worries there's a rumor that the local Council The BMC are preparing for one of their periodic evictions of the family squatting on the [Music] beach huh [Music] we're certainly hardworking but having our heads down doesn't mean we're cut off keeping our eyes open to the world around us might just give us that all important Edge in the jewelry district the gold sweepers take a close interest in the global spot price of gold a shift in value has a direct impact on their earnings though not in the way you might [Music] expect with the price of gold at an oldtime high and fewer customers for jewelry there's far less Gold Dust on the streets for car this means his dream of escaping the landlord's cramped dormitory and setting up on his own has got harder still but he has an idea and is up earlier than ever he plans to bypass his landlord by dealing in a different kind of dirt the Gold Dust washed off the Goldsmith's bodies and swept from their floors eventually ends up with all the other muck in the drains look [Music] working flat out for 20 minutes minutes gay dredges enough sludge to fill six [Music] bags they dredge three more drains before K and his friends call it a night [Music] to shift the night Hall car makes a call to one of the large scale refiners car's plan to cut out his landlord in the house seems set but at last the buyer Javid does turn up but he's playing it very cool have to see that how much gold is present and how much today I gain or what I lost once is Happy there's gold in the mud negotiations can begin for he's a good bargainer but I have not paid him so much he was expecting 10,000 rupees of this mod but I have paid him 5,000 oh [Music] if we've got a good business idea we're not the type of people to let paperwork and the law get in the way over 90% of our working population earn their money off the books generating 2/3 of our [Music] GDP ironically that includes selling knocked off books something the entrepreneurs where you come from might not be so happy about out Steve Jobs Steve Jobs and this one de CH life after that meet Salman who earns his living selling the books to Mumbai commuters hi [Music] no a b but the story is real Salon Works the prime retail space of this busy Junction with a bunch of friends who have a RCT profit sharing [Music] agreement salmon started out selling newspapers on the streets when he was nine before spotting there were better returns and paperbacks turned out by the city stop back street press if I sold this book in 400 to my commission would be uh 200 hi sir no [Music] Steve DN Sor Steve [Music] [Applause] [Music] J I sold one book I sold it on 200 rupees it was my first buyer first good luck without profit also after that I will earn more profit black marketeers like salmon and the Gang are easy targets they want money they always asking for money they'll burn our books and hit us and maybe they'll find 's friend AJ ended up here after an accident with a haymaking machine back in his village it's not who is lucky oh I don't have I'm handy up please buy from me so many people buy from here AJ consistently tops The Cooperative sales rankings guaranteeing his [Music] popularity [Music] guet physically we are strong so that is the good thing for us 9 only by very difficult to do every [Music] good come come I'll show you where do we sleep salmon and some of his family currently sleep in a municipal Gardens next to the junction it is tough because many difficulties like Municipal people comes and they just throw your everything just Throne all that so it's very difficult to live on the street also she's my auntie and my cousin Sabu so we all live together and we all stay together also over here all the people used to sleep here every day so my mom was calling me while Salon mly sleeps Out close to his work his mom lives at home just outside the city like Mom's everywhere she worries for him and his future my ambition is I want you to go in a different side in Indian defense like Navy or Army but my another aim is my ambition is to start an NGO which work with underprivileged children so I wanted to start an NGO also with this kids those who are living here with me and my friend also he's my cousin's son yeah we all live together stay together because good night tell Baba good night [Music] let me take you to a secret place across the mighty Ganges on this abandoned Riverbank hundreds work in an underground yet highly organized industry hist welcome to kolkata's very own Gold Rush this is where javitz brought the drain sludge that he purchased from G in the jewelry district he and his family are major players around these parts this is my Casino I gamble there every day but I never know that how much gold I will get come I show you javid's hopes of transforming the sludge into to Cold Hard Cash relies on the scale of his 20 employees he's my best friend Raju and he's really me KH his real name is j KH he working since 12 years his name is n Alam he work less but he busy always in phone with his girlfriend always hello how are you I love you all that thing etc etc he's laer than him before the gold can be extracted the sludge must be prepared all these Ms are again drying after it will dried it will goes there the sving is supervised by javid's father Abdul head of the family firm G the only mechanized phase of the process follows it name is Rola to make the mud was well we have to grind very well see this is very good fine powder the finy ground mud is ready for Javit casino this labor intensive wooden slle technology is straight from 19th century California using water hold by hand from the Ganges when Conjuring gold from mud there's no beating the human [Music] touch [Music] a vigorous brushing dislodges the precious sediment from the grooves in the wood this mud is from 30 BS it is less from my expectation after the washing we add some Mercury some glass and some soda ash after making the balls we melt in The Crucible air is blasted into the charcoal fired Crucible to force up the temperature and drive of any impurities all the goods aranga or you may call it Mercury presents gold comes down is too hot this is the thing I was waiting [Music] for the solidified ranga balls are then heated to an even higher temperature in a handmade oven for several hours to burn off the Mercury very hard work very hot work smoke is very harmful for us by doing this I get lots of gold I love this plac very [Music] much a small disc of alloyed silver and gold is all that's left javid's brother Nabil refines it piece by piece using nitric acid CH silver or gold the final smelting produces at long last pure 24 karat gold after the whole process pure gold the big one cost 54843 rupees a very huge amount of M I have washed 350 bags I have washed for getting this gold who doesn't like gold everybody likes the gold earning cash is always the top priority but making a home is also crucial it provides the stability we hope will nurture the success and wealth of the next Generation on the beach in Mumbai today is Rees and savita's wedding anniversary it's 9 years since they moved here after their controversial love marriage and even though money is tight re yes is determined to buy sevita a present I borrowed the money from some of my one friend and now I'm going to buy and Sor for my wife till my pocket in I am having 2,500 but till 2,000 I will take and SAR this one is nice whatever color I take she likes it she never refused till now favorite color it is just I will the S splashing out on a new SAR means that reesh needs more credit to restock his Pub he drops a call to his local money lender who already owes a substantial sum I have to pay 70,000 rupees and per month I'm giving interest 5,000 rupees the money lender relents and lets Rees extend his loan failing to keep up his repayments now would have serious consequences some money lender take the children they keep the children for 2 three days and within 2 three days they ask the money return back Rees now desperately needs to get the pub back up and running and stimulate some cash [Music] flow once dusk Falls he can safely make his Runde Vu with his illicit liquor supplier today night I am going to buy 148 pieces are there in one box sometimes it profit is still 400 500 sometimes the profit is 200 also 3 300 also no [Music] [Applause] perfect I always buy from this guy only my friend only I don't go to any other shop or any other person to buy word has already got out that the best value bar on the beach is back in business re's strategy is to Corner the No Frills end of the market the people come here because we give them the water to se the place and glasses also we [Music] provide with the customers having drunk their pockets dry reesh calls time at the bar so he can present saita with her [Music] [Music] surprise happy birthday to you dear Mommy dear papa happy anary wedding annary for both day but such Harmony on the beach could be shortlived the residents of new luxury apartments one squatters like Rees moved on and they're not alone mey farmer and Neil's family built illegally themselves when they first arrived but they've since been given the right to remain and the growing competition over space explains their antipathy towards newer [Music] arrivals [Music] [Music] K is still in the room he shares with 15 other gold sweepers all under the control of their [Music] landlord but he's just heard about a room that's come available nearby perhaps this is the moment he's been waiting for to make his Escape cha oh yeah bathroom yeah bathroom [Music] take yeah yeah 2,000 Rupees a month isn't unreasonable but on top of food and other outgoings it's well out of Gay's reach somehow he needs to radically improve the returns for his drain [Music] sludge down at the sludge Refinery by the Ganges the workers turn up at first light while their boss Javit can enjoy a more leisurely approach first things first breakfast I'm calculating that how much I have to pay the work because today is the paying [Music] day now I'm feeling very sleepy I need to sleep [Laughter] gay has come down to the refinery with fresh determination after seeing the [Music] room realized that as a newcomer to the drain sludge business he must play tough if he's ever going to be paid a fair amount see here is the gold see it is not so good but it is okay [Music] speeech [Music] sometimes I win sometimes I lose normally you you can see that I win there's a mounting Panic among residents of the beach in Mumbai there's word that the council are serious about their eviction threat and are sending over the [Music] bulldozers the thing is that today BMC is going to come so everybody is in worried that what will happen see there that side some guys are dismantling the house and they keeping there only but Rees has seen it all before when it will come then only I will dismantle if they will not come then I will not [Music] dismantle faced with the risk of losing everything most people aren't taking any [Music] chances one of the council's security guards is an old customer with no quals over ordering a drink from the illegal Pub he's not convinced by rees's preparation and tips him off that this time the eviction is for real I'm feeling very bad now the message has came that within 1 hour they will be reaching to your house huh [Music] Rees has an added problem cops are standing over there now I'm in some tensions if the cops find his booze during the eviction he would quickly end up back in prison I have to hide it somewhere else if police will see then it will create lots of problem [Music] luckily for the future of the family's home and possessions savita's rushed back from her job in time to helpy there [Music] [Music] [Applause] hey unlike rees's upbringing in a middle class apartment Savita grew up in illegal [Music] settlements [Music] the money lender approaches on his daily round [Music] it's feeling very worry that what will happen now if anybody goes and rush them then they remove sticks and Beed them very hardly just uh don't show the camera otherwise cops will catch you for [Music] [Music] in Just 2 hours the houses of 40 families have been reduced to a jumbled mess Caray in the jewelry district is again using the brief hours of quiet in the middle of the [Music] night he's confident he's found a buyer who will pay properly for the sludge [Music] [Music] [Music] foree [Music] K has a new plan to strengthen his bartering position instead of letting the buyer come to him he'll take the sludge to the buyer's own bir ta [Music] [Music] the race across town has paid off the new buyer Akbar is still present but will he offer more than the 5,000 rupees javet paid for this similar amount of sludge done [Music] [Music] on the beach everyone is busy rebuilding their homes in the exact same position as before yesterday's demolition the cops didn't find rees's booze and his dismantled house survived unscathed reesh himself has been off helping some friends leaving sevita to reconstruct their home alone she's not in mood of talking because I was not here [Music] [Music] [Music] no but there's a priority neither can afford to ignore before the war are even on the pub is back up and running providing the income so crucial for servicing their debt I know it very well my wife so I am not scared about her it will be a little B shouty after that it will be silent in everybody's house that is going [Applause] on she is my life partner so she's not my biggest headache biggest headache is [Music] BMC now K is getting a better price for his drain sludge renting a room may be within reach he's taking his dring friends along for a second viewing of the place offered at 2,000 Rupees a [Music] [Music] month [Music] for [Music] and on the beach there's a new contentment too The BMC like to flex their muscles occasionally but attention has now moved [Music] on for Rees and Savita life on the beach is never going to be easy but as adaptable resourceful survivors they will always be able to provide a home for their family and with that comes hope for a better future my dream dream is that I will build one day my permanent house once I will get then some little but support for my business and then I will take one permanent house for myself and for my children also that is my [Music] dream [Music] oh

Channel: Documentary Central

Views: 463,292

Keywords: Doco, Documentaries, Documentary, Episode, Movie, Movies, Online, Series, TV, life in india, history of india, indian history, indian culture, history of india every year, history of india in hindi, colonization of india, history of indiana, documentary history, documentary 2023, series full episodes, india's slums, slums, gold, gold making, making gold in india, indian, life in india documentary, behind closed doors, documentary, documentary central, real stories

Id: pu4TAKVCW0s

Length: 59min 2sec (3542 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024