Sivakasi - May 15 and 16

Sivakasi
I came to Sivakasi, my home town. I grew up in this town and completed my high school. Sivakasi is called “Kutti Japan”. Kutti means Little. Match industries, litho press and fireworks industries have been the factors of economic growth. Everyone is very busy and you can rarely see any idle hands. When I was in elementary school, I wrote an essay on Sivakasi as the beggar-less town. Many know that there are lots of beggars in the streets of Indian towns, but it is a rare sight in Sivakasi (unless of couse some are begging to fulfill a vow to a deity). There is always work for anyone to do in Sivakasi and there is no need to beg. Even little children after school work. Children arrange the match sticks without chemicals on a wooden frame and earn 50 paise every evening. Sivakasi is usually blamed for child labor because hundreds of children do not go to school but go to work in factories. I have not visited any factories lately and so I cannot address that issue now.
However, I should state that as a teen ager, I earned a lot of money to meet my needs during weekends and summer. During summer vacation, I used to make the cardboard boxes for sparklers and fix the label with glue. Every school child used to earn our funds needed for the next academic year.
I love the entrepreneurship, enthusiasm, hard work, and perseverance of the people in my town. Every other family has at least one family member who has built a business. When I was in high school, two elementary kids used to come to me for homework help and they were very very very poor. Today, both of them run a business and support the families of their siblings. Because I came alone to India, I took time to my visit with some of my friends and families after twenty and odd years. I rejoiced at the prosperity of the people in Sivakasi.