I have started to walk to work some of the mornings. Partially to save money and not take the taxi every morning (since I hate taking the bus here), partially to get some exercise and lose more weight, and partially to experience the early morning life of Bombay.
I start out around 8 am and have about a 50 minute walk ahead of me. I have to say, that the street life at that time of the day, even though it's a whole lot calmer compared to day and night time, still is rich with impressions and things that makes one think about a lot of things.
Every time that I have walked down the streets, I have past over 100 people sleeping on the streets ..mostly men, but also women and children ..and whole families. That is not counting the people on the other side of the street. ....and it's not including the people that already have woken up by then. They sleep directly on the streets, on blankets, or on the street stalls that some of them use to sell their goods on during the day. many of them live, breath, eat, and work on the streets - all day long, every day of the week.
I see families eating breakfast together on the street. People are washing themselves with soap and buckets of water on the curbs, or brushing their teeth. Women are washing clothes by the sidewalk. Women with surgical masks are picking and collecting garbage in carts. other garbage pickers wearing the dirtiest of clothes carry large white sacks of garbage that they have collected, and walk around like zombies, or like they were high on something ...maybe it's just fatigue or lack of nourishment?
Rats, still the small cat sized ones, are crossing the side walk. Three men sit in a circle and take heavy drugs together. Others are taking their morning hashish by themselves. Others stick to simple chai in the morning (Indian tea).
I pass trucks that are loaded with cages full of chicken that are crammed together. Four, five, six chicken are bundled together alive and weighed on a scale before being sold. Crows are feasting on some of the slaughtered chicken that lay by the trucks. ..and feathers are everywhere.
Since this is a coastal town, there are many fish markets, even on my stretch of land... unfortunately.. but it's that long .. fortunately. But even here crows are feasting on the leftovers from the fish.
An elderly woman is pulling a midsized cart with an elderly man with crippled legs and stumps instead of hands. I see even more people, in small carts on wheels, used by people with deformed legs ...or no legs at all. One of them was rolling along and between cars stopping for traffic begging for money. When the traffic started again he rolled to the side, and waited for the next opportunity.
The various types of street stalls are slowly starting to open and getting ready for the new day's business ..with usually the newsstands being the first ones to be ready.
The stalls selling pirated books are also pretty fast getting ready in the mornings. ..and of course the various stalls offering people breakfast or morning snack.
In my area many of the people are wearing traditional clothes, but the closer I get to Colaba, the more modern and westernized the clothes get in general. People working in the downtown businesses and banks and and for the court are wearing shirts or suits. Sometimes it feel like I just passed a period of 50 years in those 50 minutes. The contrast can feel that big from the beginning of my journey to the end. The fact that most taxis and buses here could be from the 50's adds to that feeling. ...and the fact that a lot of the "modern" fashion here looks like it's from the 70's.
I have only walked all the way back home twice since I came here to Byculla. That has been such a contrast to the mornings. So hectic, so chaotic, so crowded .. and a whole different story.
Ether way, I am so grateful for the the good things I do have in life, including things that I have taken for granted. Seeing how people are living their lives on the streets, and how hard some people have to work to be able to work for their livelihood, have made me think again about how I use my time. ..and sometimes made me ashamed of some of the things that I have wasted it on ..and the times when I just have been far too lazy and spoiled.
I start out around 8 am and have about a 50 minute walk ahead of me. I have to say, that the street life at that time of the day, even though it's a whole lot calmer compared to day and night time, still is rich with impressions and things that makes one think about a lot of things.
Every time that I have walked down the streets, I have past over 100 people sleeping on the streets ..mostly men, but also women and children ..and whole families. That is not counting the people on the other side of the street. ....and it's not including the people that already have woken up by then. They sleep directly on the streets, on blankets, or on the street stalls that some of them use to sell their goods on during the day. many of them live, breath, eat, and work on the streets - all day long, every day of the week.
I see families eating breakfast together on the street. People are washing themselves with soap and buckets of water on the curbs, or brushing their teeth. Women are washing clothes by the sidewalk. Women with surgical masks are picking and collecting garbage in carts. other garbage pickers wearing the dirtiest of clothes carry large white sacks of garbage that they have collected, and walk around like zombies, or like they were high on something ...maybe it's just fatigue or lack of nourishment?
Rats, still the small cat sized ones, are crossing the side walk. Three men sit in a circle and take heavy drugs together. Others are taking their morning hashish by themselves. Others stick to simple chai in the morning (Indian tea).
I pass trucks that are loaded with cages full of chicken that are crammed together. Four, five, six chicken are bundled together alive and weighed on a scale before being sold. Crows are feasting on some of the slaughtered chicken that lay by the trucks. ..and feathers are everywhere.
Since this is a coastal town, there are many fish markets, even on my stretch of land... unfortunately.. but it's that long .. fortunately. But even here crows are feasting on the leftovers from the fish.
An elderly woman is pulling a midsized cart with an elderly man with crippled legs and stumps instead of hands. I see even more people, in small carts on wheels, used by people with deformed legs ...or no legs at all. One of them was rolling along and between cars stopping for traffic begging for money. When the traffic started again he rolled to the side, and waited for the next opportunity.
The various types of street stalls are slowly starting to open and getting ready for the new day's business ..with usually the newsstands being the first ones to be ready.
The stalls selling pirated books are also pretty fast getting ready in the mornings. ..and of course the various stalls offering people breakfast or morning snack.
In my area many of the people are wearing traditional clothes, but the closer I get to Colaba, the more modern and westernized the clothes get in general. People working in the downtown businesses and banks and and for the court are wearing shirts or suits. Sometimes it feel like I just passed a period of 50 years in those 50 minutes. The contrast can feel that big from the beginning of my journey to the end. The fact that most taxis and buses here could be from the 50's adds to that feeling. ...and the fact that a lot of the "modern" fashion here looks like it's from the 70's.
I have only walked all the way back home twice since I came here to Byculla. That has been such a contrast to the mornings. So hectic, so chaotic, so crowded .. and a whole different story.
Ether way, I am so grateful for the the good things I do have in life, including things that I have taken for granted. Seeing how people are living their lives on the streets, and how hard some people have to work to be able to work for their livelihood, have made me think again about how I use my time. ..and sometimes made me ashamed of some of the things that I have wasted it on ..and the times when I just have been far too lazy and spoiled.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar