Fire that keeps dreams alive

‘‘I am dying because my mill has shut down,’’ wrote former fitter Deepak Patil (36) in a note a year ago to his wife, son and two daughters before throwing himself under a train. Ten workers have killed themselves and around 100 have returned to ‘native places’ they left generations ago when Mumbai’s cotton mills offered a rich seam of ‘white gold’ — creating wealth and jobs which peaked in the 1850s. But their decline since the 1970s has brought up shopping malls, office complexes and penthouses of the new economy where stood.

A Rs 15-crore sale of plant and machinery in October last year was supposed to fund Rs 50,000 compensation to each worker. But they are yet to see a paise from the mill’s new management, Forbes — owned by construction giant Shapoorji Pallonjee Group. The mill’s liquidation remains in the hands of the Bombay High Court.

Eight-year-old Sameeksha Bhalekar doesn’t understand what’s happening around her. All she knows is that her mother is ‘‘with the gods’’ and she couldn’t have the books and slippers she wanted. Her father Santosh — a former mill worker — now an auto driver couldn’t afford the Rs 20,000 that might have saved her mother from a stomach ailment.

But there’s help at hand. Express readers have rushed with offers of money and jobs. Two weeks after the first report, citizens have come together to set up a trust — the Divine Life Centre — to offer relief and support with the Rs 41,000 received so far. A hotelier, a recruitment agent and a clothes exporter have offered jobs. Three readers pay for the education of Sameeksha and brother Akshay (12). She wants to study in an English-medium school with a ‘‘huge playground.’’ ‘‘Aai is not around,’’ she says, ‘‘But granny can help with my homework.’’