Day 28 - "My" Village

One of the most difficult things to cope with in India is the gap between the haves and have nots, especially when they live on top of each other. The contrast is startling and even after 11 months, disconcerting. Even the posh-est zip codes will have a slum, which is where the majority of the wealthy's housekeepers and drivers will live. The village pictured in my clip below is 100m from my apartment building.  Though we're neighbours, if I walked through instead of taking the auto I'd cause quite the disturbance.

I apologise in advance for the inane commentary, apparently all I can muster before my morning brew is stating the oh-so-obvious. Feel free to watch on mute. 

Stray dogs, cows blocking traffic, men selling tender coconuts from pushcarts, morning trips to fetch water (which they can't drink  until it's been boiled), open sewage, and open space that becomes a dump because waste management is not a thing. This is the side of the new cosmopolitan Bangalore that Thomas Friedman didn't see. Really Tommy. Bangalore isn't flat, let alone the world! (Though the title was derived from a statement by  Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys,  one of the largest IT companies in India based in Bangalore.)

Images captured during an afternoon trip along the same path paint a more romantic picture of their daily activities, catching vendors as they sort their produce in the sun. There's an impressionist quality to the first shot. Enjoy!

The white chalk drawing in the lower left corner is called rangoli and indicates that this home has been swept clean today. I'll do an entire post on this practice as it's a lovely way many Indian women incorporate beauty and art into their daily routine.

Onions.

For his pushcart!

Colour!!! But the most amazing thing about this picture is how white the womans hair is. Beautiful! (And I'm not sure what these women are sorting. Looks like coffee? Perhaps thats wishful thinking.)